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Chennai Super Kings spin out Kings XI
Thursday, May 21 2009
Durban: The Chennai Super Kings exorcised the Kingsmead ghosts while maintaining their unbeaten record against the Kings XI Punjab with a 24-run victory and confirm their semi-final spot in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, here tonight.
In a low-scoring match, the Super Kings, after being restricted to 116 for nine, pegged the Kings XI to 92 for eight in their 20 overs with spinners Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina picking up two wickets as also fast bowler Thilan Thushara.
Undoubtedly, much of the credit for the victory that took the Super Kings tally to 17 points and second spot behind Delhi Daredevils (18) on the leaderboard, should go to Muralitharan and Ashwin who secured the vital breakthroughs before Raina chipped in brilliantly with his off-breaks.
Incidentally, the Super Kings had lost all their three previous outings at the Kingsmead Stadium here, but had enjoyed a 4-0 win-loss record against Kings XI before the match. In the event, tonight’s victory was doubly sweet and provided the Super Kings some welcome momentum going into the knock-out stage.
Ultimately, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni got the bowling combination right as he opted for three off-break bowlers to counter the surfeit of left-handers in the Kings XI team besides shrewdly shuffling his bowlers around to maximum effect.
The trio of spinners conceded a mere 38 runs from their combined 12 overs to sound the death knell for the Kings XI who thus remained on 14 points on completion of their league engagements and their progress now depends on the result of tomorrow’s game between Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore, both of whom also have 14 points.
Ironically, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, Dhoni had ticked off his bowlers for losing a few matches and as it transpired later, it were the Super Kings batsmen who fared poorly, but the bowlers more than compensated.
On a pitch that was on the slower side, the Kings XI batsmen were caught in the sniper’s crosshair as it were and were shot down mercilessly after Thushara, coming in for Albie Morkel, who is nursing a niggle, sent back opener Sunny Sohal in his very first over.
From then on, the Super Kings spinners took charge. Muralitharan, bowling as brilliantly as ever, foxed the batsmen with amazing variations to dismiss the dangerous Simon Katich and later the other big-hitter, Luke Pomersbach. Muralitharan conceded just eight runs in his four overs.
At the other end, Ashwin, bowling for the first time in the IPL, complemented Muralitharan’s effort with some tight bowling while picking up the key wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Wilkin Mota to finish with excellent figures of 4-0-13-2.
Meanwhile, Raina bowled shrewdly to dismiss skipper Yuvraj Singh and Brett Lee to complete a fine day’s work even as Thushara, bowling his second spell at the death, removed Irfan Pathan, the last of the Kings XI hopes.
So well did the Super Kings bowled that not a single boundary, leave alone a six, was scored between overs five and 17 with the Kings XI batsmen struggling to get the ball off the square. As the pressure built up, the batsmen were forced to chance their arms and paid the penalty.
Earlier, the Super Kings innings went into a virtual tailspin after a bright start. They lost wickets at regular intervals and ran out of ammunition for a counter-attack at the death.
The manner in which George Bailey and Parthiv Patel began, a total of 150-plus looked a certainty, but Yuvraj came up with a brilliant direct hit to run out the Aussie to trigger the slide.
The openers looked to be in no trouble. They scored at a brisk pace with Patel outshining Bailey while essaying some delightful flicks to midwicket including a six. Bailey took his chances and marked his presence with a couple of boundaries before he was beaten by Yuvraj’s throw, attempting a single off Ramesh Powar.
The wily off-spinner struck in his next over, castling Patel and the scoring rate came down dramatically thereafter. Sreesanth then delivered a double blow in his third over as Subramaniam Badrinath mishit to midon and two balls later, Dhoni had his stumps disturbed by a yorker to leave Super Kings struggling at 70 for four after 10 overs
On re-start, the Super Kings ran out of steam as it were with the big-hitters back in the dugout. Jacob Oram was rather disappointing, unable to fire despite spending some time in the middle. The big blow came when Raina was caught at backward point, cutting Mota and then, the Super Kings ran out of overs.
The Super Kings made three changes, bringing back Manpreet Gony for Sudeep Tyagi, Thushara for Morkel and Ashwin for Shadab Jakati.
SCORE-BOARD
Chennai Super Kings Innings:
George Bailey (run out – Yuvraj) 15 (12b, 3 x 4)
Parthiv Patel b Powar 32 (23b, 1 x 6, 4 x 4)
Subramaniam Badrinath c Pathan b Sreesanth 04 (9b)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni b Sreesanth 02 (2b)
Jacob Oram c and b Pathan 17 (21b, 1 x 4)
Manpreet Gony b Chawla 07 (5b, 1 x 6)
Ravichandran Ashwin c Pomersbach b Pathan 08 (15b, 1 x 4)
Thilan Thushara (run out – Katich/Sangakkara) 01 (5b)
Lakshmipathy Balaji (not out) 02 (6b)
Muttiah Muralitharan (not out) 01 (1b)
Extras (b-3, lb-2, w-2): 07
Total (for 9 wkts, 20 overs): 116
Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Bailey, 4.5); 2-56 (Patel, 6.5); 3-68 (Badrinath, 9.3); 4-70 (Dhoni, 9.5); 5-87 (Raina, 13.3); 6-96 (Gony, 14.4); 7-105 (Oram, 17.4); 8-109 (Ashwin, 17.6); 9-114 (Thushara, 19.4).
Bowling: Brett Lee 4-0-16-0; Irfan Pathan 4-0-32-2 (1w); Ramesh Powar 4-0-19-1; S Sreesanth 4-0-23-2 (1w); Piyush Chawla 2-0-13-1; Wilkin Mota 2-0-8-1.
Kings XI Punjab Innings:
Sunny Sohal c Patel b Thushara 03 (9b)
Simon Katich b Muralitharan 08 (13b, 1 x 4)
Luke Pomersbach c Raina b Muralitharan 26 (32b, 1 x 6, 1 x 4)
Yuvraj Singh b Raina 06 (19b)
Kumar Sangakkara c and b Ashwin 07 (9b)
Wilkin Mota lbw Ashwin 05 (10b)
Irfan Pathan c Oram b Thushara 14 (12b, 1 x 4)
Brett Lee c Oram b Raina 06 (7b, 1 x 4)
Piyush Chawla (not out) 04 (4b)
Ramesh Powar (not out) 07 (5b, 1 x 4)
Extras (lb-3, w-3): 06
Total (for 8 wkts, 20 overs): 92
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Sohal, 1.5); 2-32 (Katich, 6.5); 3-45 (Pomersbach, 11.1); 4-49 (Yuvraj, 12.4); 5-59 (Sangakkara, 15.1); 6-60 (Mota, 15.3); 7-67 (Lee, 16.5); 8-83 (Pathan, 18.5).
Bowling: Manpreet Gony 2-0-9-0; Thilan Thushara 4-0-28-2 (2w); Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-8-2; Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-13-2; Suresh Raina 4-0-17-2 (1w); Lakshmipathy Balaji 2-0-14-0.
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