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Uthappa managed to hit Chahar for back-to-back boundaries and just when it looked like the Karnataka batsman would make the most of the start, he became the pacer’s third victim.
Playing at home on a warm Tuesday evening, Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and put Kolkata Knight Riders in to bat.
And once again the pitch played slow and things only got more difficult for KKR who were pushed on the back foot early in the innings.
Chahar started the rot for KKR early when he trapped opener Chris Lynn in front of the wicket as the Aussie missed a pull off a delivery that kept low. Lynn was sent back inside the first over for a duck.
Chahar came back into the equation in the very next over when he took a brilliant catch, running backwards, to dismiss Sunil Narine for just 6 off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh.
Next over, Chahar bowled slightly short. Rana tried to flick it on the onside for runs but only managed to hand a catch straight to Ambati Rayudu at mid-on.
The loss of three quick wickets put the pressure on Robin Uthappa to find the boundaries while the Powerplay was still on.
Uthappa managed to hit Chahar for back-to-back boundaries and just when it looked like the Karnataka batsman would make the most of the start, he became the pacer’s third victim.
The Kolkata batsman went for the big pull shot and was caught by Kedar Jadhav in the deep at mid-wicket to send him back to the dug-out for 11 off 9.
Having lost four wickets in the opening five overs all that Kolkata could get to was 29 for 4 in the Powerplays.
The Chennai bowling, aided by the slow nature of the pitch, gave away just 47 in the first 10 overs, and picked up five KKR wickets.
That KKR's 50 came up only in the 12th over, indicated how much their batsmen struggled to come to terms with the surface.
Russell struggled en route to his 50, even though he got a reprieve when on 8, as he was dropped by Bhajji off the bowling of Tahir in the 13th over.
Dre Russ was unable to get those lofty shots in place. The only time he went big was in the 20th over, bowled by Kuggeleijn, when the big West Indian took KKR past the 100-run mark and got to his half-century to take his team to a paltry 108 for 9 in the 20 overs.
With the dew posing problems, CSK managed to overhaul the modest target in just 17.2 overs.