BANGALORE: Lucky. Kissed by fortune. Favored by fate. Whatever! Count Chennai Super Kings out at your own peril. After creation the play-offs following a string of happy results, the defending champions overcame a disastrous start to defeat Mumbai Indians by 38 runs in the Eliminator at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday night.
Chennai Super Kings will next play Delhi Daredevils in the Qualifier - a near semifinal - at their stronghold, the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, on Friday. The winner of that game will meet Kolkata Knight Riders in the final match of IPL- Wednesday, Chennai were sent in to bat by Harbhajan Singh and found themselves in hot water within the 1st 8balls of the match. They were two down for 1 run, with M. Vijay and Suresh Raina back to back in the pavilion, and the ball swinging cruelly late, when they engineered an amazing turnaround.
Super Kings steady the boat through Michael Hussey (49) and S. Badrinath (47), and then benefited from a jaw-dropping display of power hitting from skipper M.S. Dhoni (51, 20b) and Dwayne Bravo (33 runs 4b) The conclusive assault bring in 105 runs from the last 8 overs, as captain cool and Bravo went crazy, adding 73 in just 29 balls and taking Chennai to a gargantuan 187-5.
The most successful IPL permit then tided over Dwayne Smith’s early fireworks in the chase to trounce Mumbai expansively, the chase having virtually ended when the pursuer found themselves 5 down for less than hundred, all their stars back in the dugout. Bravo had a brilliant day in the field, 1st sparkling with the bat and adding 2 wickets to his haul when Mumbai took guard.
The Champions League T20 winners were never in the hunt except for a brief period when Smith was going after Ben Hilfenhaus – who had an unusual off-day – but when Sachin Tendulkar sacrificed his wicket for Smith in a brainless run-out, the chase faltered irreversibly, ending in a rash of wickets resulting from the pressure of a sky-high asking rate.
The match was really about what Chennai did when they took 1st strike. Harbhajan, criticize through the match for under-bowling himself, opened events by restricting Hussey and Vijay to just one off the 1st over. Vijay continued his indifferent form when he edged Dhaval Kulkarni’s late away swinger to Rohit Sharma at 1st slip. On the next ball, Suresh Raina went for a drive on the off-side and chopped the ball on to the stumps for a golden duck out.
Within the first 8 balls of the match, Chennai were on the back-foot in this most critical of matches. Harbhajan followed up his one-run opening over with a maiden to Hussey and the pressure on Chennai mounted, but Hussey and Badrinath made the best of their chances to resurrect the torn innings.
Badrinath edges Kulkarni a couple of times to the boundary and shattered the same bowler to the long on fence. Hussey got off the mark on the 9th ball he faced, but switched gears when R.P. Singh came on to bowl. The Aussie crunch 3 fours – one of which was chancily feathered wide of first slip – to catch up on his strike rate.
Malinga was introduced and Hussey welcomed him with a four caress through the off-side. Chennai reached 61 for 2 in 10 overs as Bhajji played around with the bowling changes. But when the captain Dhoni came on again to bowl – in the 11th of the innings – he was ill-treated by Badrinath and Hussey, who clouted a six each and took 19 from the over.
Badrinath looked good for a fifty in his return game but he skied Kieron Pollard to long-on where he was taken by Rohit for 47. Hussey and Ravindra Jadeja departed quickly after, and then began the most brutal phase of the innings as the last 8 overs of the innings conceded 105 runs. Dhoni flick the first ball he faced to the mid-wicket fence and waded into the flurry of full-length delivery that Mumbai bowlers accessible him. James Franklin was massacred over long-on for the main hit of IPL-V – all the way for 112 metres.
The Power play hero Kulkarni was clobbered straight past his head. Then the India captain launched into a helicopter shot (112 m) off Malinga over that came to rest in the stands. Dhoni reached his 50 in 20 balls. It was fearless, nerveless hitting as Bravo joined his skipper in a carnage that produced 73 runs in just 29 balls. The highlight of Bravo's knock was a banana peel ‘six that he powered, off-balance, against Kulkarni in the final over. What Sooper hitting! Whatay Sooper team! Delhi Daredevils had better watch out.
Man of the match
MS Dhoni
Tomorrow Match
Chennai Super Kings Vs Delhi Daredevils
8:00pm
