5 Most Thrilling Wins For CSK While Chasing
The Chennai Super Kings have been the most successful franchise in the IPL making it to the playoffs every season they have played in. They won the latest edition of the IPL when they made a comeback win after a 2 season ban.
This was largely due to their star-filled ranks with the likes of Mike Hussey, Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina, DJ Bravo, Brendon Mccullum, Faf Du Plessis, and were led by arguably the best captain and finisher, MS Dhoni.
The trend in the IPL has been to win the toss and bowl first. The teams now prefer playing on their batting strengths and giving them a score to chase down and CSK too keeping with the trend have scripted many memorable chases. MSD and co. always preferred to chase than bat first and profited having big hitters like Bravo, Albie Morkel and Jadeja and finishers like MSD who were prolific run scorers during chases.
CSK have won a few matches from impossible situations, like the one where MSD scored a 76 against RCB in the previous season, but have been good chasers with a 64% win record. They have also had the habit of sometimes playing matches down to the wire, which have ended up being absolute cliffhangers both on the losing and the winning side.
Here are the 5 most thrilling chases from CSK in the 9 editions of IPL they have played so far.
#5 Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders ( Match 5, 2018) MOM: Sam Billings
This will be a match which the Super Kings fans can think about and be proud of. After being banned for 2 seasons, they returned to play their first home game of the season against KKR. Although this match turned out to be their only match in Chennai with the rest of the matches being shifted to Pune citing hostile political scenarios, this match left a lasting impact on everyone who played and will be a moment which the winning team will cherish.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first in spinner friendly conditions. The Knight Riders posted a daunting 202/5 courtesy a 36 ball 88 from Andre Russell who smashed the CSK bowlers out of the park. After an initial stumble, Robin Uthappa managed to steady the innings and was going good when he was run out following a mix up with captain Dinesh Karthik. Andre Russell walked in after Rinku Singh 's departure when the score was 89/5 in 10 overs.
After a slow start, Russell slammed Bravo for a six in the 14th over. He continued by hitting 2 sixes of Shardul Thakur in the 16th over but the big ones were still to come. He hit Bravo for 3 sixes in the 17th over with one going over the roof travelling a phenomenal 105 metres and followed that up by hittting Bravo for 3 consecutive sixes in the 19th over. Dre Russ finished off with 88 of 36 balls scoring 11 sixes and 1 four.
It was never going to be easy for the Super Kings but their opening pair of Rayudu and Watson were up to task scoring freely in the Powerplay and ended with 75/1 after 6 overs with Watson departing a quick fire 42 off 19 balls. Sunil Narine choked CSK after that and Kuldeep Yadav got the better of Ambati Rayudu. Raina was struggling at one end and was dismissed by Sunil Narine who finished the match with figures of 1 for 17 in 4 overs.
However, Captain Cool hung in, playing dot ball after dot ball and was joined by Sam Billings who decided to accelerate. Dhoni too decided to make up for lost time slamming Kuldeep Yadav in the 14th over which yielded 16 runs. Billings was dropped in the 15th over by Uthappa and finished the over with a six. Dhoni was dismissed in the 17th over and Billings took over from there.
He hit 2 sixes off Andre Russell's bowling in the 18th over and brought the equation down to 27 runs from 2 overs. He hit a six next over and was dismissed by Curran after playing a brilliant cameo of 56 runs from 23 balls. Dwayne Bravo walked in joining Jadeja and 17 runs were required off the last over.
Vinay Kumar was entrusted with the responsibility of bowling it and he started off on a dismal note bowling a No Ball due to height, which was hit for six by Bravo. After rotating strike and a couple of wides bowled, Jadeja faced the bowler with 4 runs required off 2 balls. He drilled the ball over long on for a six ending the match in an emphatic fashion.
Sam Billings received the Man of the Match award for his crucial innings while Andre Russell's effort went in vain as CSK kept their cool and finished off this game brilliantly.