Match Review of Chennai Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers

Indian Premier League - Match review
Date : 1st May 2011 Match No. : 39th
Teams : Chennai Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers
Venue : MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepuk Chennai
Umpires : Aleem Dar and R. B. Tiffin Third Umpire: S. S. Hazare
Toss : Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat

Playing XI Chennai Super Kings	Playing XI Deccan Chargers
M. S. Dhoni (c)	S. Sohal
Murali Vijay	K. Sangakara (c)
S. Badrinath	Shikhar Dhawan
M. Hussy	Bharat Chipli
Suresh Raina	C. White
Albie Morkel	J. P. Duminy
S. Anirudha	Amit Misra
Suraj Randiv	Harmeet Singh
R. Ashwin	P. Ojha
D. Bollinger	Ishant Sharma
S. Jakati	Dan Chirstian

Chennai Super Kings, the team led by super cool M S Dhoni takes on the Deccan Chargers, led by Kumar Sangakara, on their home ground. It looked like an India - Sri Lanka match where Dhoni takes Sangakara head on.

The tournament so far has been a roller coaster ride for the Super Kings. Chennai desperately needed a win to keep themselves in the top 4 on the points table. On the other hand there is not much to talk about the Chargers except for their match against Kochi Tuskers where they completely outplayed the later.

Dhoni after winning the toss elected to bat as he feels that defending is his team's strength rather than chasing which has got them into trouble few times.

Murali Vijay and Mike Hussey opened the innings for Chennai. The two openers made a quite start as the spinner Pragyan Ojha was brought in to attack quite early. Ojha removed Vijay at an individual score of 3. The Super Kings lost their 1st wicket at a total of 18.

Suresh Raina, who has been struggling with his form, came in to bat. Raina showed some signs of returning to form when he put up a partnership of 60 runs in 53 balls with Hussey. The beauty of this partnership was that Hussey kept ticking the scoreboard with singles and doubles and an odd boundary in between and Raina took charge to ensure that scoring rate keeps moving up. Hussey's innings perished just 4 runs short of a half century, when he mis-timed a delivery from Harmeet Singh.

Raina was now joined in by Skipper Dhoni. The two had couple of big overs from Harmeet Singh and Amit Mishra that lifted their run-rate further. Raina completed his half century of just 31 balls. He along with the Skipper put up a partnership of 58 runs in just 32 balls before he was caught by Shikhar Dhawan in the deep at an individual score of 59.

Albie Morkel who has not been in good form and has been keeping in an out of the team comes to crease. Though Morkel has not been consistent, but Dhoni somewhere knew that he might come handy with bat and ball on this track and he persisted with him. The intuition proved to be right. Morkel, in the penultimate over, hit 3 sixes off Ishant Sharma's, that helped the Super Kings post a defendable target of 165 against the Deccan Chargers.

Sunny Sohal & Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings for the Chargers. Sohal started hitting the ball right from the word GOES. He along with Dhawan gave his team a blazing start and brought up the 50 in just 4.2 overs. It was an innings full of madness as he was hitting the pacers Bollinger and Morkel all over the ground. Though he had few lucky escapes as he was dropped couple of times but that's about this format. He did the job and took chargers to a total of 71 in just 6.5 overs. The spinner Jakati did the trick for the Super Kings and removed the dangerous looking Sohal.

The blistering innings of Sohal changed the complete scenario and the total of 165, which earlier looked challenging, now started looking ordinary. With the 1st wicket down, the Deccan's required 95 off 79 deliveries, with 9 wickets in hand, which is easily achievable in this format of the game.

The Deccan's Skipper, Sangakara is known for his using his feet very well against the spinners for reasons best known to him, he sent Chipli up the order at no. 3 position instead of taking charge himself when the spinner Jakati was bowling his spell. Sohal's wicket really slowed down the pace for the Charger's. The pressure was back on the Chargers and Jakati made full use of the situation by getting rid of the other opener, Shikhar Dhawan and the Deccan's were now 90-2 in 11 overs.

With the stage all set, what it required from the Chargers was some sensible batting. But Dhoni had some other game plan. Soon Chipli was caught by Jakati of the bowling of Morkel after contributing only 17 runs to the total. Chargers were now 3 wickets down for 110 in 13.2 overs. Dhoni brought Ashwin back to attack that ensured that even singles dried up for the Chargers. This created lot of pressure on the Skipper and while trying to hit the ball he was clean bold by Bollinger, probably the turning point of the match.

Once the Skipper got out at 121, the next four to follow, White, Duminy, Christian & Mishra, could add only 25 runs to the total and the Deccan innings came to an end on 146 with 8 wickets down.

After such a stunning start provided by Sunny Sohal, none of the batsman applied themselves. They had the depth in the batting order, just one of them should have played the match winning knock, but they failed to do so. They kept loosing wickets at regular intervals. 5 wickets lost in the last 5 overs.

Dhoni's temperament and attitude got him this match. The way he finds means to reach is goals and the way he man-manages is really commendable. The way he backs the talent is phenomenal and that is all that makes a difference.

Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 19 runs.

The Awards:

Man of the match: Albie Morkel for his all round performance with bat and ball.

Maximum Sixes:
Sunny Sohal for hitting 4 sixes.

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Kochi Tuskers tops the chart & Knight Riders at the bottom.

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virat Kohli- Royal Challengers Bangalore

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

Question of the day:
Is IPL becoming like daily TV soap?



Last Updated on 5/2/2011