Faced with a puny target of 104, Kolkata Knight Rider cruised to victory in 10.1 overs against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
It was a new low for CSK, being the first time in IPL history that the five-time champions had lost five successive games.
Sunil Narine smashed 44 off just 18 balls to make short work of the target as KKR moved up to third thanks to a superior net run rate.
CSK on the other hand are languishing in ninth place just ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Narine had also been the best bowler for KKR, taking 4/13 in his three overs, and it was no surprise when he clinched the Man of the Match award.
MS Dhoni's return as CSK skipper had begun on a grim note as the home side's top order collapsed like a pack of cards.
A last wicket partnership of 24 took CSK past 100 -- that's not a typo -- off the last ball of the innings, which Shivam Dube struck to the boundary as he remained unbeaten on 31 off 29 balls.
Earlier, it did not take long for KKR to make inroads into the fragile CSK batting line-up. Devon Conway was trapped leg before by Moeen Ali for 12 while fellow opener Rachin Ravindra was caught by Ajinkya Rahane off Harshit Rana for just four.
CSK who are notoriously slow starters limped to 31/2 at the end of six overs.
KKR's fielders were in a generous mood towards Vijay Shankar who was missed twice during his knock of 29 off 21 balls. He finally ran out of luck, being caught by Moeen off Varun Chakravarthy.
Rahul Tripathi, who returned to the side in place of the injured Rururaj Gaikwad, made a laboured 16 before being castled by Sunil Narine.
R Ashwin was promoted to No. 6 but the move failed to pay off as he fell for one off seven balls.
CSK's woes deepened when Ravindra Jadeja fell for a duck, forcing the team to make an early impact substitution by bringing in Deepak Hooda.
However, Hooda also fell for a duck, giving Chakravarthy his second wicket as CSK slumped to 72/7.
That finally brought Dhoni to the crease at No. 9 in the 15th over. It was not the skipper's day. After being rapped on the pads by Narine and given out lbw for 1, he immediately showed his bat and asked for a review. There was a spike on UltraEdge but the third umpire nevertheless upheld the decision.
In the 19th over, Shivam Dube who had survived the carnage hit a boundary, CSK's first in 63 balls.
KKR won the toss and chose to bowl first against CSK in a match that also marks the much-anticipated return of MS Dhoni as CSK captain after 682 days.
Speaking at the toss, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane said, “We’ll bowl first. There were a lot of positives from the last game. We as a team played really well. It’s about improving each game. This looks like a good wicket, won’t change much. We are batting deep, so that’s why we look to bowl first and chase things down.”
“We were looking to bat first as well. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don’t get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure,” Dhoni said following the toss.
Dhoni steps back into the leadership role following a season-ending elbow injury to Ruturaj Gaikwad. All eyes are now on the veteran as he looks to revive CSK’s campaign after four straight losses that have left the team struggling near the bottom of the table.
KKR have made one change, bringing in Moeen Ali for Spencer, as they aim to build consistency after a mixed season so far - two wins and three defeats.
Playing XI:
Chennai Super Kings: Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy