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Kolkata Knight Riders made a surprise change to their batting line-up as Yusuf Pathan was promoted to open the batting along with captain Gautam Gambhir.
The hosts dropped Manvinder Singh Bisla and brought in all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla in his place.
Ravindra Jadeja's superb all-round show helped Chennai outclass Kolkata by four wickets.
Gambhir and Pathan gave Kolkata a good start as they put on 46 runs for the opening wicket before the left-hander was dismissed by Chris Morris.
Gambhir made room and tried to lift it over point but ended up being caught by veteran Michael Hussey on the thirdman boundary after scoring 25.
Jacques Kallis was unfortunate to be dismissed run out without facing even a single delivery.
Pathan tapped it on the off-side and called Kallis for a quick single but Subrmaniam Badrinath at point swooped in quickly on the ball and got a direct hit from point.
Kolkata continued to lose wickets as Eoin Morgan (2) holed out on the leg side to give Dwayne Bravo a wicket in his very first over.
In the same over, Pathan was run out for 25 as he attempted to take two runs but was caught short after a misunderstanding with his partner Manoj Tiwary.
Debabrata Das hit a couple of sixes to score 19 from 15 balls before he was trapped leg before wicket by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Manoj Tiwary tried to hit the off-spinner for a big hit on the leg side but ended up holing out to Mohit Sharma at deep midwicket for 13 as Kolkata continued to lose wickets.
Ravindra Jadeja kept up the pressure with some tight bowling in the middle overs and was rewarded with three wickets.
The left-arm spinner got Rajat Bhatia caught and bowled for one and in the same over dismissed Laxmi Ratan Shukla (1) leg before wicket.
Sunil Narine hit two big sixes towards the end before he was caught in the deep off Jadeja for 13.
Jadeja finished with splendid figures of three for 20 to restrict Kolkata to a modest 119 for nine in their 20 overs.
Chennai Super Kings also made a suprising decision to open the batting with R Ashwin along with veteran Michael Hussey.
However, Ashwin struggled to get going and was caught at midwicket off Narine after scoring 11 from 13 balls.
Suresh Raina also caved in to the pressure created by the Kolkata bowlers. He tried to hit Pathan down the ground but ended up being caught at long-on off Pathan for seven.
Murali Vijay (2) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (7) also perished cheaply as Chennai were struggling at 54 for four in the 12th over.
Michael Hussey held one end up with a steady innings of 40.
The veteran Australian brought all his experience into play to keep the scoreboard moving with ones and twos. He was particularly watchful against Kolkata's spin duo of Sachithra Senanayake and Sunil Narine, who claimed one for 18 and one for 20 respectively.
Hussey was dismissed by Balaji when he chipped down the track and lofted one on the leg side where he was caught by Pathan.
Jadeja's fireworks with the bat helped Chennai clinch another thrilling victory.
He smashed 36 from just 14 balls, hitting three fours and three sixes, to help Chennai win by four wickets with five deliveries to spare.