Kolkata: Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two wickets to send the defending champions virtually out of the IPL play-offs contention here on Wednesday.

CSK chased down the target of 180 with two balls to spare with Dewald Brevis top-scoring with 52 off just 25 balls while Shivam Dube and captain MS Dhoni chipped in with 45 and 17 not out respectively. For KKR, Vaibhav Arora (3/48) was the most successful bowler while Harshit Rana (2/43) and Varun Chakaravarthy (2/18) took two wickets apiece.

Earlier, Left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad picked an exceptional 4-31 to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 179/6 in their 20 overs.

On a slow pitch, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with 48 off 33 balls while Andre Russell and Sunil Narine chipped in with 38 and 26 respectively. But CSK’s spin-squeeze, led by Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Noor’s four-fer ensured KKR did not cross 180-run mark. Electing to bat first, Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit a four and six, before flicking straight to midwicket off Anshul Kamboj. Rahane came in to hit three quick boundaries, before Narine hit him for three fours and a six in the power-play, which KKR ended with 67/1.

But shortly after, Narine went for a big hoick, and was beaten on it by Noor, with MS Dhoni whipping off the bails quickly and was out for 26 off 17 balls. Noor then took out Angkrish Raghuvanshi, by having him caught behind by Dhoni off a superb googly. As a result, overs 7-10 didn’t yield any boundary for KKR.