Chennai Super Kings have defeated Kochi Tuskers Kerala by 11 runs in the 64th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League-4 (IPL), in a match that was played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
The match was a do or die situation for Kochi, who needed a big win to stay in the league. However, this was not their day and they fell fighting in front of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s led Chennai.
After winning the toss, Chennai chose to bat and they took full advantage of the playing conditions from the first ball. The phenomenal Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay gave a comfortable opening start to their side, as they played confident shots all over the park.
In the third over after scoring 16 runs off 11 deliveries, Vijay was the first one to lose his wicket as RP Singhclean bowled the Chennai opener on a superb delivery, which was clearly difficult to stop from ramming into the stumps.
In the sixth over, the flamboyant S Sreesanth bolted a full toss at one down batsman, Suresh Raina, who ended up giving a catch to RP Singh at mid-on. Raina had scored 19 runs off 13 deliveries before walking back to the pavilion.
Meanwhile, on the other end, Hussey stood his ground and toyed with the Kochi bowlers by executing some fine strokes. He lost his wicket in the 15th over just when he was looking good in the middle. Hussey was caught at deep midwicket by Gnaneswara Rao off a delivery bowled by left-arm Ravindra Jadeja. Silence struck the Chennai crowd as they watched their opener walk back after playing a splendid innings of 32 runs, which included two boundaries.
However, it was Wriddhiman Saha, who stole the show by playing a commendable innings of 46 runs off 33 deliveries and remained not-out. It was this brave innings that actually helped Chennai post a total of 152 runs on the board, giving their bowlers a fighting chance to throw Kochi out of the tournament.
Skipper Dhoni could only score nine runs before losing his wicket, leaving the Chennai supporters in utter disappointment.
Coming out to bat, Kochi batsmen knew very well that the target was not big enough and they could take the game, given they kept wickets in hand.
However, without the presence of their regular skipper, Mahela Jayawardene, chasing a total against Chennai was always going to be difficult. Kochi opened the batting with stand-in skipper, Parthiv Patel, and, Brendon McCullum.
However, Kochi suffered an early blow when they lost their skipper in the third over, who was caught at mid-on after scoring six runs. His wicket was taken by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Kochi had two problems to face in the innings they needed to be tentative in order to retain wickets while at the same time required boundaries, which were drying off.
There were just too many dot balls in the second innings, putting tremendous pressure on Kochi and in the end the team could only make 141 runs, the match was tight but just not tight enough for Kochi to go further in the tournament.
From the Tuskers it was McCullum, and, Brad Hodge, who played an innings worth commending. McCullum scored 33 runs, while Hodge remaining not-out scored 51 runs on 42 deliveries.
It was a close fought battle, which was ultimately won by the Chennai Super Kings. Wriddhiman Saha was named man of the match for playing a fine innings.
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