The Indian Premier League!: Match-30, CSK vs RR, M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

MATCH-30

CSK VS RR

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

Toss- RR won the toss and chose to bat first!

Result- CSK won by 5 wickets and 1 ball to spare!

Man Of The Match- MICHAEL HUSSEY

Match Report-

CSK were high on confidence with 2 away wins while RR were beaten comprehensively by RCB before this match. Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first! Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson shared partnership of 71 runs in 7 overs. Mane aggressor was Watson as usual! Rahane was bowled by Ashwin in 7th over for 16. Promotion of Yagnik didn't work as he went after scoring just 7 runs in 8 balls. Captain Dravid also couldn't get going as he was caught behind on the bowling of Bravo. Still, Watson was firing from other end. He got good support from Binny. In 18th over Watson scored his first century in the shortest format of the game, it was also the first for this season! But he soon departed, trying to hit Bravo for a boundary he was caught by Hussey! Watto made 101 runs in just 61 balls with the help of 6 fours and 6 sixes!! They scored 29 in the last 3 overs to post a great total of 185/4 ! Binny remained not out right till the end on 36(22)!

It was going to be a stiff target to chase for CSK! They were unable to chase 120 on the same ground against PWI! But this time around the in-form Michael Hussey went all guns blazing right from the beginning. He didn't give any half measures to the bowlers and attacked them! Vijay was dismissed early in the 3rd over by Chandila. Raina joined Hussey and was hitting middle of the bat straight away! After 6 overs they were 58/1! Both the batsmen continued their stroke-play after that too. When Raina[51(35)] was dismissed they were well placed at 112 in 12.4 overs. Captain Dhoni along with Hussey kept the score board ticking and didn't allow the required rate to jump above 10! After the second strategic time-out, on the 1st ball of 17th over, M.Hussey[88(52)] was run out, thanks to the direct hit by Dravid at point. Jadeja, match winner couple of nights ago, was dismissed for a duck on the third ball of the same over. Faulkner bowled a perfect yorker to dismiss Jadeja. In 18th over, Dravid misfield couple of times that cost them 2 extra runs and CSK managed to score 12 runs from that over. With 17 required in last couple of overs and Bravo and Dhoni in middle, everyone thought that CSK will win it easily. But Faulkner again bowled a great penultimate over, giving away just 6 runs and taking prime wicket of Dhoni! Dravid handed the ball to experienced Shane Watson to defend 11 runs. On the 1st ball, Morris took a single and gave the strike to Bravo. Watson bowled a perfect yorker, but Bravo managed to dig it out. It was dot ball. 10 needed from 4 balls, the West Indian played an amazing shot over extra cover for six. And they ran couple of 2s on the next 2 balls to win the match for CSK with one ball left!

My Views-

Again it was a great game of cricket! Two Aussies scoring runs, two Indian (Binny and Raina) playing a supporting role and West Indian finishing off in style! Watson was brilliant right from the outset! His sixes were humongous and creative! He took apart almost all the bowlers! 185 was a very good effort by RR batsmen!
RR must have thought that Hussey will play through the innings with other batsmen attacking to chase down that stiff target. But Mr. Cricket proved them wrong and attacked up front and through-out his innings of 88! But he got out at wrong time. He called Dhoni through for the single but wasn't able to make his ground. The match again went down to the wire, and for this the "Match Winner" tag was grabbed by Bravo from Jadeja!