The Chennai Super Kings continued their winning run at home defeating the Deccan Chargers by 19 runs on Sunday to climb to 4th in the Indian Premier League table. Batting first, CSK scored a solid total of 165, but Deccan started well with Sunny Sohal scoring 56 off just 30 balls to keep them very much in the hunt. The middle order couldn’t capitalize on the start though, and though most batsmen reached double digits, they failed to make it count by putting together one partnership of note that could have taken Deccan past the finish line. Chennai were well led by Suresh Raina, who top-scored with a breezy 59 off just 35 balls. Albie Morkel was awarded the Man of the Match for his excellent all round performance.
Chennai Super Kings after breezing past the Pune Warriors twice in three days were back at Chepauk to host the resurgent Deccan Chargers on Sunday night. The Chargers were on a high after that fiery spell of pace bowling by Ishant Sharma in Kochi and were looking forward to upstaging Chennai in their own backyard. The two captains who stood opposite each other at the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup Final were back to lead their IPL sides in a highly anticipated encounter. Chennai had won all three games at home and were the firm favourites heading into this contest.
MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first in an attempt to put the pressure on the Chargers on a slow track. Expectedly, Chennai made two changes bringing in the fit again Albie Morkel and Sri Lankan offspinner Suraj Randiv for the two pace men Nuwan Kulasekera and Tim Southee. The Deccan Chargers too freshened up their squad for a track expected to lack pace. Ravi Teja, Manpreet Gony and Dale Steyn made their way out while Harmeet Singh, Pragyan Ojha and JP Duminy were brought back into the playing eleven.
JP Duminy was a surprise pick to open the Deccan bowling, and there was some turn on offer straight away. Kumar Sangakkara decided to take the pace off the ball and asked Daniel Christian to accompany Duminy with the new ball. The bowlers were rotated very well by Sangakkara and he was rewarded when Pragyan Ojha gave Deccan the breakthrough as Murali Vijay was bowled for a painstaking 3 off 14 balls. Ojha could have had Michael Hussey as well in the same over but Cameron White dropped a sitter when the batsmen had made just 10. Suresh Raina joined Hussey as Sangakkara persisted with his spinners and medium pacers. It was an indifferent start from Chennai with just 34 runs scored in the powerplay for the loss of Vijay.
Christian was bowling some outstanding overs and gave away just 5 runs in his first 2 overs. Boundaries were hard to come by with the batsmen restricted to rotating the strike. Hussey and Raina had to work hard for their runs as Chennai posted just 58 by the half way mark. The good news for Chennai though was that they had set a great platform for the big hitters to follow to launch themselves at the bowling. Hussey decided to turn on the screws and reverse swept Amit Mishra twice in as many balls. But just as the Aussie started to look dangerous, he smashed a long-hoop from Harmeet Singh straight down Ishant Sharma’s throat. Hussey fell having scored 46 off 41 balls. Ojha came back to bowl a good over with Chennai still looking rather mediocre with just 88 runs having come off 14 overs.
MS Dhoni hit Mishra out of the park for the first maximum of the day which also took the team’s total past 100. Raina followed by launching into Mishra and had a similar result. It looked ominous for Deccan at that stage as Dhoni and Raina got into the act. Raina reached his 50 smashing Harmeet for a couple of boundaries in an over. Raina hadn’t finished as he hit another maximum much to the joy of the crowd. Ojha might have had his revenge but Ishant put down another chance, although Raina holed out in the deep for 59 (35b) trying to clear the ropes one too many times.
But Albie Morkel stole the show at the very end when he hit Ishant Sharma for three consecutive sixes with two of them landing on the roof. The damage could have been worse but Morkel was run out for 19 off 6 balls. Ojha’s wily bowling had Dhoni stumped as Chennai managed just 8 runs in the last over. Ojha finishing with excellent figures of 3 for 26 in his 4 overs. Chennai added 69 runs in the last 5 overs and would have felt quite confident of defending 165 on a pitch expected to slow down further as the game progressed.
Deccan Chargers needed a quality batting performance to chase down 166 and move up the points table. Sunny Sohal started with a six over third man and was lucky when a bouncer from Doug Bollinger flew past him for a boundary. There were comical scenes when both batsmen got down to the same end while taking a run but escaped as Bollinger fumbled the ball. Sohal took heart from the opportunity and took the attack to Morkel hitting him for 20 runs in an over. Sohal played some creative strokes as Morkel had no answer to the counter attack. The spinners were brought on to control Sohal but he wasn’t to surrender the advantage and smashed Suraj Randiv out of the park. Ashwin got some Sohal treatment as well as he hit a maximum off him too. Sohal reached his 50 off just 25 balls and had given a perfect start to his team. 64 runs were scored in the powerplay with Sohal the prime architect. Deccan needed 102 more runs from 14 overs and the game appeared theirs to lose.
But Sohal’s inexperience came to the fore as he missed an attempted reverse sweep in the 7th over and Shadab Jakati's delivery found timber. Sohal though had given his team an opportunity to beat Chennai on their own turf with his innings of 56 off just 30 balls. Bharat Chipli was sent in, probably to continue the left hand-right hand batting combination. The spinners were doing a good job and the required rate started to climb as they dried u the boundaries. Shikhar Dhawan was a victim of the rising rate and departed for a slow 19 off 27 balls when he edged a ball onto his stumps. Sangakkara made his way into the middle with Deccan still very much in control of their own destiny.
Deccan needed 76 runs from the last 9 overs, but the equation became that much tougher when Chipli fell to the returning Albie Morkel for 17 from 15 balls. Cameron White came in with Deccan needing 51 from the last six overs and the experienced duo should really have seen the visitors past the finish line.
Ashwin bowled a tight over conceding just 3 and the pressure got to Sangakkara (15) who was knocked over by Bollinger to give Chennai a much needed breakthrough. Chennai went from strength to strength as Deccan let the match slip away. The required rate was getting out of hand, and mysterious Cameron White struggled to time the ball for the umpteenth time this year, making 13 off 18 balls before finally falling to Morkel, perhaps to the relief of the Deccan faithful. JP Duminy, who had been starved of the strike was forced to go for everything and despite a handy 17 from 11 balls was another Morkel victim in the 19th over. Deccan needed 23 to win from the last over, but managed just 3 as Chennai came back brilliantly from the dead to steal another home win.
Chennai move up to 4th in the points table having won three straight and are looking quite certain to making the play-offs. They have poor travellers Rajasthan Royals to contend with next, three days from now.
Deccan have shown some glimpses of excellence in the tournament so far but they have failed to close games out. They stay in 6thplace but there is a bit of a gap emerging between the top 5 and the chasing pack. They return to Hyderabad to play the in-form Kolkata Knight Riders next and a failure to win that game might bring a premature end to their season.
Teams:
Deccan Chargers: Sunny Sohal, Shikhar Dhawan, Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Cameron White, JP Duminy, Daniel Christian, Bharat Chipli, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Harmeet Singh, Ishant Sharma
Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Srikantha Anirudha, Albie Morkel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Doug Bollinger, Suraj Randiv
Mini Scorecard:
Chennai Super Kings 165/5 in 20 overs (8.25 runs per over)
S Raina 59(35) P Ojha 2-18
M Hussey 46(41) H Singh 1-26
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