Match Review of Chennai Super Kings vs. Delhi Daredevils

Indian Premier League
Date 12th May 2011
TeamsChennai Super Kings vs. Delhi Daredevils
Match no. 56
VenueChepauk Stadium, Chennai
Umpires A M Saheba & S L Shastri Third Umpire: K Srinath
Toss Chennai Super Kings

Playing XI

Chennai Super Kings M. S. Dhoni © M. Hussy Murali Vijay Suresh Raina S. Badrinath Albie Morkel W. Saha D. Bollinger R. Ashwin Suraj Randiv Shadab Jakati

Delhi Daredevils Naman Ojha David Warner C Ingram Irfan Pathan Venugopal Rao H Hopes © A Mc Donald Yogesh Nagar Shahbaz Nadeem Ajit Agarkar V R Aaron

Chennai Super Kings set to host Delhi Daredevils at the Chepauk Stadium, Chennai. Both teams positioned at No. 3 on the points tally the only difference being that one is from the top and the other from the bottom. The Super Kings with 14 points are very strong contenders for the play offs and would perform their level best to seal their position in the play offs. For the Daredevils who have 8 points from 11 matches, though it is mathematically possible to make it to the play offs but looking into their form it looks unlikely.

The Super Kings have been in superb form on their home ground and have been able to pull all 5 matches played in Chennai. The Daredevils on the other hand have not been consistent all through this season. Though they have registered couple of good wins but have never looked a threat to the opposition.

The pitch in the Chepauk stadium has always been a good one and full of runs. Though there were chances of it slowing down a bit in the 2nd half of the match. Ideally, the skipper winning the toss should take the call the bat 1st and put up a 160 plus total.

Captain cool M S Dhoni of Chennai won the toss and took the right call to bat as they have a good winning track record by batting first.

Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay opened the Chennai innings. Their openers are known to give their side great start but the danger man Hussey got out cheaply on 5 to a beautiful in-swinger from Irfan Pathan in the 1st over itself. Raina was the next man in but could not stay on the crease for very long. He was caught by Pathan off the bowling of Aaron who has been in and out of the squad but was very impressive. The Super Kings were scoring at a good pace but were 2 wickets down for 41 runs.

Badrinath came out to crease to join Murali Vijay. They could put up a small partnership of 27 runs until Vijay got out to Agarkar after scoring 35 of 33 balls. Badrinath looked in great touch and was now joined by the skipper. Midway, the contest looked equally balanced as the Super Kings were 3 wickets down for 68 runs in the 11th over.

Things changed from thereon for the Super Kings when their skipper took the charge and came out flying colors. Dhoni initially took McDonald to task and launched him for a straight six and a boundary in one over. He did not spare any of the visitor's bowlers and managed to complete his half century in just 28 balls. Badrinath on the other hand intelligently rotated the strike sensing that the skipper is in a destructive mood. The head and humidity in Chennai always makes it tough for the batsman to score between the wickets. An exhausted Badrinath got run out after scoring 55 in 43 balls. They both managed to put up a partnership of 96 runs of just 56 deliveries. Dhoni finished the innings by hitting Irfan Pathan for 2 consecutive sixes of the last two deliveries helping his team post a commendable total of 176 runs.

177 runs to win, with the current from minus Virender Sehwag looked very tough. In Sehwag's absence Ojha opened the batting with Warner. Ojha who has exhibited poor performance in the all the matches, showed some spark today. He gave his side a promising start but full of risks as they had to keep up to the steep run rate. He scored a quick 25 of 14 balls completely destroying the bowling figures of Chennai spearhead Morkel.

After Ojha, Warner took up the charge and was joined by Ingram who has played couple of matches. But Ingram was soon removed by a blinder taken by Bravo on the bowling of Ashwin. The Daredevils were 2 wickets down for 54 in the 8th over. Warner was joined by Pathan who has the capability of scoring fast. Soon after the stupendous catch, Bravo removed Warner with whom all hopes of the visitors rested. They were now 3 wickets down for 64 runs in the 10th over.

Rao, who carries the temperament to hit the ball even under pressure, joined Pathan on the crease. They put up a partnership of 43 runs of 31 balls helping the team cross the psychological 100 runs mark. Just when the partnership looked good, the Super Kings leading wicket taker Ashwin, gave his team a breakthrough by getting Rao bold on an individual score of 30 runs of 20 deliveries.

James Hopes, who has played some really useful and match winning knocks for Daredevils, was the next man in. Before he could settle to judge the situation, Bravo struck again and removed him after contributing just 8 runs to the total. With Hopes back in the stands, Mc Donald was sent up the order before Nagar.

The pressure kept mounting as the spinners were not giving any width away for the ball to be hit. Pathan tried to stick to the crease and played some wonderful shots but could not pull the game for his team. He looked in some kind of hitting spree but all he could do was to take his team to a respectable total of 158, falling 19 runs short of the target. He remained unbeaten at 44 in 34 balls hitting three 4s and two 6's.

Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 18 runs

The Awards

Man of the match
M S Dhoni for scoring 63 off 31 balls

Maximum Sixes
M S Dhoni for hitting four 6's

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Daredevils.

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



Last Updated on 16 May 2011