After Hussey, Badrinath consolidate, late surge from Bravo, Dhoni proves decisive
Briefly on Wednesday, IPL's official website listed a final between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings!
Whether the gaffe was an error or a middling attempt at prophecy will remain in the realm of speculation, but CSK did no harm to its chances of qualifying for the final as the day wore on.
In the eliminator at the Chinnaswamy Stadium later at night, CSK defeated Mumbai Indians by 38 runs and will now face-off against Delhi Daredevils in the second qualifier in Chennai on Friday.
Chasing the defending champion's 187 for five, Mumbai Indians mustered 149 for nine.
The initial pursuit was powered by Dwayne Smith's frenzied bat as Ben Hilfenhaus suffered two sixes that squirted from a top-edge and flew off a pull.
The opener's confidence even forced Sachin Tendulkar to sacrifice his wicket when Smith charged for a non-existent run. However, neither the maestro's martyrdom nor the Power Play yield of 54 for one counted for much as Mumbai Indians lost its way and Super Kings got back its roar.
Smith chanced his arm once too much against Shadab Jakati, and Albie Morkel scalped Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik.
Worse was to follow as Mumbai Indians's saviours from its previous visit to Bangalore — Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard — failed to repeat their heroics, and a full house — mostly in shades of yellow — cheered a neighbouring city's triumph.
Earlier, a 94-run third-wicket partnership between Michael Hussey and S. Badrinath, and M.S. Dhoni's (51 n.o., 20b, 6x4, 2x6) return to belligerence, revived CSK after a start that resonated with alarm bells.
A hint of moisture in the air, thanks to rain-bearing clouds that hovered close before drifting away, provided some impetus for swing and Dhawal Kulkarni also found allies in Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina.
Vijay leant into his drive, and edged to Rohit's hands at slip while Raina played on.
The early stage of the alliance between Hussey and Badrinath was a nervous medley of start-stop running between the wickets.
Urgency was embraced at the half-way stage, with a Pollard over going for 14 and Harbhajan Singh yielding 19 as Badrinath and Hussey hit a six each.
The defending champion then suffered a slump as three wickets fell for 19 runs in a span of 12 deliveries. The crowd, though, got high on its roars of ‘MSD' and the CSK skipper, a pale shadow of himself in the league phase, finally revealed his scintillating self.
James Franklin was hoisted for a six — the tournament's longest at 112m — and the helicopter shot bruised Malinga's final spell.
Dhoni's aggression was also mirrored by Dwayne Bravo as the West Indian scattered Kulkarni's last over.
The high-point was Bravo's second six that started with him moving away and then leaning forward to swat the bowler high over cover.
Bravo still managed to retain his balance and stand tall and it was a theme that also shimmered through his team-mates.
Scoreboard
Chennai Super Kings: M. Vijay c Rohit b Kulkarni 1 (5b), M. Hussey c Kulkarni b Franklin 49 (39b, 8x4, 1x6), S. Raina b Kulkarni 0 (1b), S. Badrinath c Rohit b Pollard 47 (39b, 6x4, 1x6), M.S. Dhoni (not out) 51 (20b, 6x4, 2x6), R. Jadeja c Rohit b Kulkarni 1 (2b), D. Bravo (not out) 33 (14b, 3x4, 2x6). Extras (lb-2, w-3): 5; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 187.
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Vijay), 2-1 (Raina), 3-95 (Badrinath), 4-106 (Hussey), 5-114 (Jadeja).
Mumbai Indians bowling: Harbhajan 3-1-20-0, Kulkarni 4-0-46-3, R.P. Singh 4-0-34-0, Malinga 4-0-41-0, Pollard 3-0-26-1, Smith 1-0-6-0, Franklin 1-0-12-1.
Mumbai Indians: S. Tendulkar (run out) 11 (11b, 2x4), D. Smith c Jadeja b Jakati 38 (22b, 5x4, 2x6), Rohit c Dhoni b Morkel 14 (19b), D. Karthik c Dhoni b Morkel 6 (4b, 1x4), J. Franklin c Dhoni b Bravo 13 (13b, 1x6), A. Rayudu c Vijay b Ashwin 11 (7b, 2x4), K. Pollard c Raina b Bravo 16 (19b, 1x4, 1x6), Harbhajan c Raina b Hilfenhaus 1 (4b), L. Malinga b Jadeja 17 (16b, 1x4, 1x6), D. Kulkarni (not out) 10 (5b, 2x4), R.P. Singh (not out) 1 (1b). Extras (lb-5, w-5, nb-1): 11; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 149.
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Tendulkar), 2-55 (Smith), 3-68 (Karthik), 4-77 (Rohit), 5-96 (Rayudu), 6-102 (Franklin), 7-103 (Harbhajan), 8-129 (Pollard), 9-148 (Malinga).
Chennai Super Kings bowling: Jakati 4-0-25-1, Hilfenhaus 4-0-45-1, Ashwin 3-0-18-1, Jadeja 2-0-15-1, Morkel 4-0-31-2, Bravo 3-0-10-2.
Man-of-the-Match: M.S. Dhoni.
Keywords: IPL 5, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians
Sachin is really a Genius and once again proved that he always plays for the team and not for his personal milestones. During the Innings of Mumbai Indians, when his batting partner Smith was in fire, Sachin cut one to backward point, Smith took off for a quick single without realising that the fielder dived and collected the ball. Smith almost reached the batsmen's end, but Tendulkar was still struggling to the crease, while the fielder threw the ball to the non-striker's end. With one of the batsmen sure to be run out, Sachin stepped out of his crease and sacrificed his wicket, an acknowledgement of the early fireworks provided by Smith. Really Sachin is All-time Genius to the Indian Cricket.
Chennai Super Kings in a manner similar to a saying in Tamil that the slow but steadily moving turtle overtakes the fast moving rabbit, CSK overhauled the star studded Mumbai Indians to go into the next round. Best wishes to the players for playing an entertaining cricket.
Our Indian players like Dhoni, Badrinath, lived upto their reputations while much talked about players like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja have been consistently inconsistent.
If all of them live upto their true potential there would be hardly any team to match up CSK.
When Pollard was out to a ball from Bravo, the otherwise simple Bravo showed his colours to his friend(?) Pollard. I hope this is taken in the right spirit!
Best wishes once again to CSK for their true characteristic display of cricket.
Dhoni rocks...chennai super kings ku whistle podu
I was there in the stadium to witness the tie.People say dhoni is lucky
but the fortune favours the brave his captaincy is excellent .It is high
time that sachin hangs his boots and I don't understand MI captains
performance it is high time he also passes the baton to others.
Kudos MS. Scintilating innings by the captain of CSK. The hallmark of a great batsmen is to raise to the occasion MSD has done it several times in all sorts of cricket. It is not how many runs a batsmen has made in his career but how many times did his team win due to his contribution. MSD stands alone as a batsmen, wicketkeeper and Captain. Keep it up.
Chennai Super Kings has for sure increased the excitement and provided
the usual drama associated with such tournaments. This edition of IPL
was lacking the previous years' interest from the viewers and the Super
Kings from Chennai have to be there till the end of the IPL for
increased viewership and excitement.Fortune favours the brave and the
brave follow fortune too.All the best to CSK for the title challenge.
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