Noor Ahmad shines as Chennai Super Kings cruise past winless Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL

[p]Five-time winners [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/chennai-super-kings/hQRNSDp4/"]Chennai[/a] posted 192-5, riding on knocks from Sanju Samson, who hit 48, and Dewald Brevis (41) after being invited to bat first at their home M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.[/p][p]Noor then turned on the heat with his left-arm wrist spin to keep [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/kolkata-knight-riders/nmRRRXaA/"]Kolkata[/a] down to 160-7 in reply as they remain winless in their five outings.[/p][p]"[b]It gives a lot of confidence[/b]," player of the match Noor said of his performance. "[b]Will keep putting a lot of effort to keep contributing to my team[/b]."[/p][p]Kolkata sit last in the standings with one point, which came courtesy of a washed-out game.[/p][p]Chennai kept up their momentum after starting the season with three consecutive defeats, and now with back-to-back victories move up to eighth place.[/p][p]One of the most successful franchises in the T20 tournament, Chennai are still waiting for[/p][p]the return of M.S. Dhoni, who is recovering from a calf injury and is yet to play a game in this edition.[/p][embed guid="2e0f7ed0-6e4f-420b-9c6e-3b391a8f70b4" url="https://x.com/IPL/status/2044117045533651251" social-type="twitter" /][p]Three-time champions Kolkata lost three early wickets in their chase, including Finn Allen (one) and Sunil Narine (24), but were in the hunt before Noor struck.[/p][p]Noor took down skipper Ajinkya Rahane for 28 and Australia's Cameron Green for a golden duck on successive balls but the hat-trick was avoided by Rinku Singh in his next over.[/p][p]But Rinku did not last long and was caught out at long-on for six as Kolkata slipped to 90-6.[/p][p]Rovman Powell, who hit an unbeaten 31, and Ramandeep Singh (35) attempted to revive the chase but could never keep up with the asking rate.[/p][p]"[b]We just have to keep that head up and just be positive and have that self-belief[/b]," said Rahane.[/p][p]Earlier, Samson, who hit a century in the previous match, kept up his form to hand the team a quick start in his 32-ball knock laced with four fours and three sixes.[/p][p]Ayush Mhatre's 17-ball 38 and crucial runs by Brevis and Sarfaraz Khan (23) allowed Chennai to post a challenging total despite tidy bowling by Kolkata at the backend.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/cricket/chennai-super-kings-hQRNSDp4/kolkata-knight-riders-nmRRRXaA/?mid=xrpn7SM6"]Check out the scorecard here[/a][/b][/p]