Match Review of Chennai Super Kings vs. Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Indian Premier League
Date 18th May 2011
TeamsChennai Super Kings vs. Kochi Tuskers Kerala
Match no. 64
VenueChidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
UmpiresHDPK Dharamsena & RE Koertzen Third Umpire: K Hariharan
Toss Chennai Super Kings

Playing XI

Chennai Super Kings M. Hussy Murali Vijay Suresh Raina S. Badrinath W.P. Saha M. S. Dhoni © JA Morkel DJ Bravo R Ashwin S B Jakati DE Bollinger

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Parthiv Patel © B McCullum G Rao BJ Hodge Ravinder Jadeja OA Shah KM Jadhav R Vinay Kumar M Muralidharan R P Singh S Sreenath

Chennai Super Kings were to host the Kochi Tuskers Kerala at the Chidambaram Stadium. This was the last match of IPL season 4 being played at their home ground. Super Kings currently positioned at No. 2 with 16 points would like to ensure a win in the face off against the Tuskers to seal to playoff berth. A loss for the home side would put them in a MUST WIN situation against the current table toppers Royal Challengers Bangalore. Tuskers on the other hand have already been knocked out of the tournament and were just playing for their pride.

The Chennai track is known to offer help to the spinners but still remains a good batting pitch. Team batting first should look forward to posting 160 + runs to make it a challenging chase. Chennai captain won the toss and decided to bat.

The innings was opened by Hussey and Murali Vijay, but they could not give the team a great start. Vijay got out on a blazing yorker from R P Singh just after hitting his previous delivery for a boundary. Suresh Raina came in to bat at No. 3. He along with Hussey took the side to 40 runs in the first six overs. Raina looked confident when he hammered Sreesanth for 3 consecutive boundaries, but the later came back with an excellent delivery to send back Raina after scoring 19 runs. Chennai were 40/2 in the 6th over.

Badrinath, a consistent performer for Chennai was the next man to join Hussey. Before he could get into the act of taking the run rate high, he was dismissed when R P Singh took and excellent catch off the bowling of Brad Hodge. Badrinath departed after contributing just 13 runs to the total. Saha was the new man in, the Super Kings would have like to bat more aggressively but somehow were not able to score quickly. Hussey and Saha together added 37 runs to the total before he was dismissed by Jadeja at an individual score of 32 runs. The Super Kings at this stage were 97/4 in the 15th over.

Saha was joined by the skipper Dhoni who has played some excellent innings that have been instrumental in taking the team total to beyond expectations. He had a job on hand as the Chennai were scoring at a low rate. Jadeja struck once again and took the big wicket of Dhoni in his successive over. Saha along with Morkel accelerated the scoring rate a bit and pushed the total to 152 runs. Saha played a useful unbeaten knock of 46 runs of just 33 deliveries hitting one 4 and three 6's

Loss of wickets at regular intervals restricted the hosts to a modest total of 152 runs. Parthiv Patel, who was leading the Tuskers had a tough day on the field as he missed couple of stumping chances and a catch while keeping for the side.

153 to win, though gettable on this surface but can become really challenging when you are playing against the hard task master Dhoni's bowling army. The Tuskers innings was opened by skipper Patel and hitter McCullum. It wasn't Patel's day neither with the gloves nor with the bat as he gave away his wicket to Ashwin before reaching the double figure. McCullum who is generally aggressive was watchful against the bowling attack of Bollinger and Ashwin. Rao came in to bat next at No. 3 and put up a partnership of 44 before he was caught and bold by Bravo, and the visitors were now 45/2 in the 7th over.

McCullum was joined by Hodge who can be very ruthless to the bowlers. Tuskers all hopes relied on this partnership as they were capable of taking the match away from the opposition. They put up a stand of 38 runs but could not do much to accelerate the pace. Sensing that the partnership could prove expensive for the home side, Dhoni immediately brought his other spinner Jakati to attack who got his captain the breakthrough and bold McCullum. Though McCullum stayed on the crease for a decent period of 14 overs but could only manage to score 33 of 37 balls. A crucial wicket came at a crucial time. The Tuskers were now 3 wickets down for 83 runs in the 14th over.

Jadeja, who had a great day with the ball was the next man to join the crease. Hodge got a second chance when he was dropped at 19 by Murali Vijay who tried to casually complete an easy catch at the boundary off the bowling of Suresh Raina. The Chennai camp knew that this wicket man cost them the match. Hodge stayed at the crease with Jadeja before the latter got out to a stunner by Suresh Raina after scoring just 19 runs.

It was high time for the Tuskers to push the run rate hard before it was too late. Though Hodge looked determined to make the most out of the second chance he got but he did not get the required support from the other end. He scored a valiant 51 runs from 42 balls hitting three 4s and two 6s taking his team to a total of 141 which was 11 runs short of the goal.

With this victory, the Chennai Super Kings cruise to the 1st position on the points standing with 18 points in their kitty.

Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 11 runs

The Awards

Man of the match
W Saha for scoring 46 of 33 deliveries

Maximum Sixes
W Saha for hitting three 6's

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Shaun Marsh, Kings XI Punjab.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day?
Players leaving the tournament in between to join their team for International cricket. Does it make sense?



Last Updated on 20 May 2011