CLT20: Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni power CSK to victory

Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni were at their belligerent best

Chennai Super Kings, powered by Suresh Raina‘s 84 and MS Dhoni‘s 63*, registered their second consecutive victory in the Champions League T20 by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad at the JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi.

Put into bat first, CSK lost Murali Vijay for a duck, for the second consecutive time in the series. Michael Hussey was joined by Suresh Raina at the crease. Just when the pair started looking dangerous, Duminy sent Hussey back to the hut with a beautiful off-spinner that induced the outside edge.

With the scoreboard reading 45/2, CSK played the ‘You-know-what happens next’ card by sending in Subramaniam Badrinath to stabilize the innings. A subdued 5-over period followed as the pair made sure no further inroads were made into the CSK batting line-up. Raina started to open-up, with the next 2 overs from Thisara Perera and Darren Sammy leaking 30 runs.

Duminy returned to pick up his second wicket of the match as CSK lost Badrinath for a 18-ball 13 with the score at 115 and 5.5 more overs to go. Raina had moved onto 71 off 45 deliveries by then and in the form of MS Dhoni, what would turn out to be Sunrisers’ and in particular Thisara Perera’s worst nightmare walked in.

The Indian captain absolutely demolished Thisara Perera, who was taken for 34 runs in the 18th over of the match- of which 32 came of Dhoni’s bat (6,2,6,6,6,6). Sammy was not spared either, conceding 39 runs of his three overs. If not for Steyn (4-0-23-2), who dismissed Raina eventually, and Duminy (4-0-27-2), Sunrisers would have had to chase more than 203.

In reply, Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel got Sunrisers off to a flying start with a partnership of 88 runs in 9.2 overs before Patel was run out for a 28-ball 38, in a mix-up with Dhawan, by a direct hit from Suresh Raina. With none of the bowlers having any telling effect on the scoring rate , Dhoni’s decision to turn towards Raina worked wonders as he bowled Duminy for a duck in the same over.

Dhawan, who was at his audacious best till then, edged Ashwin to Dhoni while Perera was caught at long-off of the bowling of Dwayne Bravo to leave Sunrisers reeling at 107/4 in 13.1 overs. Sammy immediately responded by smashing Jadeja for 22 runs in the very next over to bring the scoring rate down to 9.20 in the last five.

Bravo bowled an excellent spell at a crucial juncture of the game picking up two wickets but runs continued to flow from the other end as Sammy looked unstoppable and Karan Sharma chipped in with useful runs. Despite the West Indian’s valiant 50 off 25 deliveries, who was cleaned up by a yorker from Jason Holder in the penultimate over, Sunrisers fell short by 10 runs.