IPL History: 3 best overseas bowlers who have represented Chennai Super Kings
The often repeated mantra in cricket is “Bowlers win matches”. This is particularly true in the IPL where the team is packed with quality Indian and overseas bowlers. CSK has been particularly fortunate to have overseas bowlers of the competence of Muttiah Muralitharan, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ben Laughlin, Doug Bollinger, Makhaya Ntini, and Tim Southee.
During IPL matches, one would see the CSK Captain MS Dhoni cooly rotating his eminent overseas bowlers to restrict the opposition to a below par score. And the bowlers always delivered in crunch matches.
In this article, we discuss the 3 best overseas bowlers who have represented Chennai Super Kings in IPL history.
#3 Muttiah Muralitharan
Matches – 40, Wickets – 41, Economy – 6.30
The Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan played in CSK’s first match in IPL history. Ironically, his first IPL wicket was that of his countryman Kumar Sangakkara. One interesting statistic about Muralitharan is that in his first 8 IPL matches he completed his full quota of 4 overs every single time. He never conceded more than 33 runs in his spell in those 8 matches.
In fact, Muralitharan played in 15 matches in the inaugural IPL season in 2008. In all those matches, other than the one against the Mumbai Indians, Muralitharan completed his full quota of 4 overs. He finished his first IPL season with 12 wickets at an economy of 6.78.
Muralitharan started IPL 2009 with 3 wickets against RCB, conceding a mere 11 runs. CSK won that match by 92 runs. He took 14 wickets in the second edition of the IPL at a remarkable economy of 5.22.
In IPL 2010, Muralitharan was successful in prising out his countrymen Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews. In the semi-finals against Deccan Chargers, CSK were defending a modest total of 142 and all their bowlers including Muralitharan came to the party on that day.
Murali finished with figures of 4-0-16-1 while the other overseas bowler Doug Bollinger had wonderful bowling figures of 4-1-13-4.
In the finals against MI, the Sri Lankan once again displayed his skills with a spell of 4-0-17-1. He was part of CSK’s maiden IPL triumph. The beauty about him was that he always gave his captain a 4-over spell in every match without being too expensive. He was a difficult bowler to dominate, even in the IPL.
Muralitharan is CSK’s best overseas slow bowler in IPL history.