Bravo thrashes Bhatia for a last-ball six; keeps Chennai's hopes alive

“It ain’t over until it’s over!” –Manchester City stole this tagline from their local rivals yesterday; and today, IPL showed that it can do no less justice to the slogan! After a high-scoring RCB-MI match which saw Mumbai stage a comeback out of the blue, lots were on offer in the game that followed which was not only a topsy-turvy one, but also a crucial encounter. Chennai desperately needed to win today and they did, courtesy Dwayne Bravo who punished a Rajat Bhatia full toss quite ably in the last ball. What a fantastic match! 9 runs needed off the last over and Mahendra Singh Dhoni gets bowled. And then Bravo hits a six off the last ball to seal a much needed victory for the Chennai Super Kings. May be the better team didn’t win (I can’t decide who was better as both teams were on par on this occasion), but cricket definitely showcased its might for the umpteenth time.

Going into the analysis of the game, it is quite interesting to see that both the teams have scored the runs in a similar fashion. They had a superb run-rate in the first half of their innings and then, a series of wickets affected their scoring and they led the charge once again in the dying moments. Thus from 99/0, Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to 128/5 before recovering in the end. Similarly, boundaries dried up for CSK in the second half of the game before Dhoni struck Marchant de Lange for a four and two sixes in the 19th over that brought his team back into the game.

CSK scored 94 runs from fours and sixes which are exactly identical to KKR’s stats. Here’s the run distribution:

There were more than a couple of defining moments in the game. The quick dismissals of Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir had an impact on the Knights’ batting, as they reached a total that was far lesser than something they could have managed if one of the two had stayed a little longer. Same goes for CSK : who lost both the openers in quick time. Again, Sunil Narine missed an opportunity to run-out Michael Hussey in the 9th over off Balaji which proved to be a bit expensive for KKR. All these apart, the climax was turned into an anticlimax for the home-team by one Mahendra Singh Dhoni who unleashed three big hits in the penultimate over off Marchant de Lange. The last ball was a full toss by Rajat Bhatia and Bravo (as expected) cleared the ground with ease to see their team home.

So at the end, in spite of superb efforts by Gambhir, Hussey and Dhoni, the limelight was stolen by Bravo and quite rightly so! After all, it is solely because of him that Chennai have earned two crucial points. As of now, they sit at 4th position tied at 17 points with KKR who are ahead on net run rate.