Chennai: Mahendra Singh
Dhoni sent the Delhi bowlers on a leather-hunt as Chennai Super Kings kept
their unbeaten record at Chepauk intact with a comfortable 18-run victory over
Delhi Daredevils in a 12th round IPL encounter today.
Dhoni smashed his way to an unbeaten 63
off only 31 balls (5x4s, 4x6s) and along with an equally effective Subramanium
Badrinath (55) guided CSK to a formidable 176 for four in 20 overs. With no
Virender Sehwag in their line-up, the target was virtually impossible for
Daredevils to chase as they managed only 158 for six in 20 overs.
Irfan Pathan scored an unbeaten 46 but
that was never going to be enough.
With this win CSK notched up their
eighth win in the competition and stretched their unbeaten streak at home to
six matches.
The match will however be remembered for
the contrasting half-centuries by Dhoni and Badrinath as they added 96 runs for
the fourth wicket in only 9.2 overs.
Dhoni clobbered the Daredevils bowlers
racing his way to a 28-ball half century. He finished with a flourish hitting
Irfan Pathan for consecutive sixes off his final two deliveries. The exhibition
of clean hitting reminded one and all of the Dhoni of the old who had the
penchant for taking on the bowlers straightaway.
On the other hand, Badrinath (55, 43
balls, 6x4, 1x6) who is almost a certainty going to board the flight to the
Caribbeans did his reputation no harm as he played with lot of precision
rotating the strike and punishing the loose deliveries. The final two overs
yielded 37 runs while CSK scored 109 runs off the last 10 overs having scored
67 from the first 10.
For Daredevils who erred by selecting
five pacers on a slow track, Ajit Agarkar turned out to be the most expensive
bowler leaking 49 runs from four overs while Pathan gave away 40 from his four.
Dhoni started off with a pulled boundary
off Ajit Agarkar and then launched into Andrew McDonald for a straight six and
then helped himself with a boundary. Both Dhoni and Badrinath ran the singles
and twos well as they waited for the loose balls.
When Agarkar came back for his second
spell, he played an audacious pull-shot and followed it up with a deft scoop
past the short fine leg.
The Indian captain moved into the 40's
when he patted state-mate Varun Aaron's full-toss straight past the bowler. The
best stroke however remained a lofted shot off Agarkar over extra cover that
brought up his second six.
With an able ally in Badrinath who was
wise enough to rotate the strike, Dhoni ensured that his side put up another
commendable score on a slow Chepauk track.
Put in to bat, CSK suffered an early
setback when Irfan removed danger-man Michael Hussey (5) in the very first
over. Suresh Raina (14) started off with a four and a six off McDonald but
perished trying to hook a short-pitched delivery from Jharkhand pacer Varun
Aaron. Raina, whose weakness against rising delivery is well known, took his
eyes off the ball and the balance was not there as Irfan took an easy catch at
deep fine leg.
Meanwhile Murali Vijay (35, 33 balls,
2x4, 2x6) played some nice shots including couple of huge sixes off Agarkar,
one flew into the deep mid-wicket stands while the other one went over long-on.
Vijay should however be blamed for not
cashing in on being dropped twice off successive deliveries. On 22, he drove
Aaron towards cover which skipper James Hopes failed to latch on to.
The first ball of the very next over
from left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem saw Vijay lobbing it straight to the
bowler who failed to grab the chance. The batsman had scored 23 then.
He could add only 12 more before Agarkar
got his revenge as Venugopal Rao held onto a smart catch inches inside the
ropes. Source: PTI
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