The Indian Premier League!: Match-16, CSK vs RCB, M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

MATCH-16

CSK VS RCB

Venue- M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Match Officials- A.Rauf, A.Choudhary, S.Asnani(Umpires), J.Srinath(Refree)

Toss- CSK won the toss and chose to field first!

Result- CSK won by 4 wickets and 1 ball to spare!

Man Of The Match- RAVINDRA JADEJA

Match Report-

CSK vs RCB, South Indian Derby witnessed most dramatic finish to the match. After winning the toss and choosing to field first, CSK dismissed Gayle very cheaply in the 2nd over of the match. Mayank Agarwal got out in the 20s. Then came AB De Villiers to join Kohli in an outstanding partnership that they shared. They batted for 8 overs(from 9th to 17th) and scored 82 runs in it. Virat Kohli was lucky to escape a caught behind appeal from CSK, replays showed that he had nicked the ball. Capitalizing on the opportunity that he got, he scored 58(47) valuable runs. After he got out AB continued to attack. He blasted Nannes, Morris, Jadeja and Ashwin for plenty. He was not out till the end scoring 64(32) quick runs. Scoring 102 runs of the last 10 overs RCB reached 165 runs in their 20 overs.

After winning the previous match against KXIP by 10 wickets, CSK expected to get a solid start from Hussey and Vijay. But the RCB's new ball bowlers gave nothing away in the first 4 overs and dismissed both the openers. Ravi Rampaul dismissed Vijay while Vinay Kumar took the wicket of Hussey. Raina then attacked the last 2 overs of the powerplay and CSK scored 21 runs in those overs. Badrinath and Raina kept rotating the strike against the 2 left arm spinners and hit an odd boundary as well. But in the 11th over Raina looking to heave the ball bowled by Syed on leg side, got out getting a thick outside edge. M.S.Dhoni walked in with 100 required from 57 balls. He started off slowly taking singles. Badrinath also got out trying to find the boundary against Syed in the 13th over. Jadeja joined the Captain in the middle. They rotated the strike well. MSD hit R.P.Singh for 6 in the 14th over, but Vinay Kumar bowled an excellent 15th over. 65 runs were required from 5 overs. CSK scored 36 in he next 3 overs. But turning point came when Dhoni got out edging Rampaul to the keeper when his side needed 29 off 2 overs. Rampaul bowled a wide ball to Bravo followed by a big six by Bravo. But he soon perished getting LBW against Rampaul. 16 runs required in the last over. Kohli had lots of options like R.P., Christian, M.Kartik, Syed but he showed faith in R.P.Singh. First ball bowled by him went flying for 4, courtesy thick edge of Jadeja's bat. 2nd ball by R.P which was a length ball went for a big six. 6 required off 4 balls, it was within the reach of CSK. On next 3 balls Jadeja and Morris managed to score just 4 runs.
1 run for a super over, 2 runs for CSK to celebrate, wicket or dot ball for RCB to celebrate.... R.P.Singh came charging in, Jadeja's thick edge went in the air, straight in third man's hands, Kohli started celebrating, but umpire called it a no-ball, Jadeja had already crossed Morris to complete the single. CSK won with one ball to spare. It was the most dramatic finish to the match. Kohli and RCB couldn't believe that.... Jam Pack "Sea Of Yellow" at M.A.Chindambaram Stadium started to road as Jadeja was named as Man Of The Match.

My Views-

It was the most dramatic finish to any cricket match I have ever seen, so far. You can't ask for a better finish than this. Fortune favors the brave! And it did in this match for Jadeja. He will cherish that moment for a long time. On the other hand RCB shouldn't lose their heart. They fought brilliantly. They were on top when they dismissed Raina! But Badrinath, Dhoni,Jadeja,Bravo and Morris played well under pressure.
Kohli and whole RCB unit will be furious at R.P.Singh, but the loss wasn't his mistake only. They gave away many extra runs due to misfield. Even their best fielder and captain, Kohli, misfielded 2 times. The Pressure got better off them. It was a wonderful match of cricket!