But for Ravindra Jadeja's unbeaten 36 off 14 balls (3x4, 3x6), Kolkata Knight Riders could actually have defended even their paltry total of 119 for 9!
In the end, the defending champions went down by 4 wickets - their fourth defeat in 6 games - as the game surprisingly went down to the final over on a pitch which had no demons.
MS Dhoni's men took the chase lightly, sending Ravichandran Ashwin to open with Mike Hussey, and almost paid the price. Choked by spin twins Sachithra Senanayake and Sunil Narine, CSK hobbled to 48 for 3 in 10 overs.
But what really sent alarm bells ringing in the CSK camp was Eoin Morgan's Jonty Rhodes-like run out of the dangerous Dhoni in the 12th over. The run-rate was climbing all the time and when Jadeja strode in, the Super Kings were 71 for 5 and still needed 49 runs off 27 balls.
Jadeja got down to business quickly - smacking Laxmipathy Balaji over mid-wicket, lofting Narine over long-on and savagely pulling Yusuf Pathan over wide long-on to finish off a game that had all but slipped out of Chennai's grasp.
It was Jadeja's day, as his left-arm spin had earlier fetched him figures of 3/20 in 4 overs. There could not have been any other contender for the Man-of-the-Match award.
Earlier, Gambhir sprung a surprise at the toss, mentioning Laxmi Ratan Shukla as the only change in the XI, at Manvinder Singh Bisla's expense. Surprise No. 2 came in the form of Gambhir's opening partner: In walked Pathan in tow with the skipper, who won a good toss and opted for first strike.
For a while, it appeared to be a masterstroke as the Knights galloped to 44 without loss in 5 overs. But then catastrophe struck.
Ashwin takes first strike
Off-spinner R Ashwin is known as a gutsy batsman who can chip in with a few useful runs. It was a complete surprise, however, to see the CSK tweaker open the innings.
The great KKR collapse
Skipper Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan provided KKR with a 46-run start. What followed next was purely a nightmare for the Knight Riders fans. From 46-0, the hosts collapsed to 119 for nine in 20 overs.
Yusuf opens, but fails again
In six games so far, Yusuf Pathan has managed just 86 runs. On Saturday, he opened the KKR batting, and scored 25 before getting run out. Since the 2010 edition of this T20 event, Yusuf has failed to hit a fifty.
Kallis logs a blob
It's not often that Jacques Kallis gets out for a duck. CSK must have been relieved to see the SA legend run out for a blob, without facing a single ball.
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