CLT20: Chennai Super Kings in perfect form

Hussey and Raina: Firing away

The Chennai Super Kings are facing a lot off media attention – both wanted and unwanted. Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of the re-elected BCCI chief, has been finally accused of being involved in betting. This is possibly a new low for the Super Kings as a team, but on-the-field, they are playing tremendously in the on-going CLT20, wherein they have just managed to book a seat in the semi-finals of the tournament.

It is an under-statement to say that the CSK is playing well. Barring for Murali Vijay, each and every player has been in a top-notch form in the tournament. But his failure has been compensated by none other than Mr.Cricket Mike Hussey, who seems to be in the form of his life.

Remember, he has retired from international cricket and he is aged 38 now. It is quite an embarrassing situation for the current Australian Cricket team, wherein the retired old-horses are playing 10 times better than the talented and much fitter younger players of the current generation.

Hussey’s scores of 47,23,57 are excellent, considering that he does not play cricket very regularly nowadays. I guess the Australian Cricket Board will have a hard time to stop itself from begging him to come out of retirement, and provide stability to the Aussie batting order for the upcoming Ashes.

However, well begun is only half done and the remaining half still needs to be completed. And here, the Super Kings’ middle order has step in well. Raina looked good in the 2nd match against the Sunrisers, wherein he scored an excellent 84 to power CSK to a 200 plus score. Moreover, his crucial run-out to break the opening partnership was the turning point of that match, considering that CSK won by a mere margin of 12 runs.

Dwayne Bravo has been in his usual best, quietly doing his work by chipping in with crucial runs and important break-throughs.

The bowling unit looked a tad weaker in the first two matches. Though they did manage to take wickets in regular intervals, their economy rate was pretty bad. But they produced an excellent performance in the match against Brisbane heats. Ravindra Jadeja, who was very expensive in the first two matches, took two wickets in an over, whereas Ashwin was at his economical best. Mohit Sharma has looked good throughout the year, and he has impressed in the current CLT20 too.

And finally, lets not forget the performance of the captain, M.S Dhoni, who grabbed quite a few eye-balls with his new Mohawk hairstyle. His captaincy, as always, has been well up to the mark, and he once again showed us why he is one of the best hard hitters of cricket ball around, with his astonishing innings of 63 from 19 balls against the Sunrisers.

It is quite difficult to find a fault within a team which is performing exceptionally well. Both the batsmen and the bowlers have complemented each other and they have come up with good performances when the team needed them to perform. They have successfully qualified for the semi-finals, and unless the opposition produce something magical, it is going to be a walk in the park for the former champions.