Following an impressive spell of 3/16 from R Ashwin, Suresh Raina (78) and Murali VIjay (50) guided Chennai to a comfortable 9 wicket victory.

Man of the Match : R Ashwin

Sourav Ganguly opted to bat after winning the toss on a surface he reckoned would turn later in the night. It’s a big game for Kolkata Knight Riders and the hosts Chennai Super Kings, because the loser tonight will be perilously close to elimination. Kolkata have never reached the final four of the IPL and after the scathing criticism of Ganguly following the last game, have no room for error.

Kolkata made three changes to the side that lost the previous game. They drafted in David Hussey, Laxmi Shukla and Iqbal Adbullah and left out Ajantha Mendis, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma.

Chennai, who have made the semis twice already, know exactly what they have to do and to boost their chances they smartly called back Muttiah Muralitharan, with Albie Morkel fit again. The men to sit out were Thilan Thushara and Michael Hussey. Murali’s inclusion means there are three primary spinners - R Ashwin and Shadajb Jakati being the others - and the handy offspin of Suresh Raina. Aniruddha Srikkanth also got a game in place of Sudeep Tyagi.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 3 Brendon McCullum,4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 David Hussey, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 Laxmi Shukla, 9 Ajit Agarkar, 10 Iqbal Abdulla, 11 Ashok Dinda.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 M Vijay, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 5 S Badrinath, 6 Albie Morkel, 7 S Anirudh, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Shadab Jakati, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Doug Bollinger.