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All-round Chennai ease past Pune

By Jamie Alter

 

Michael Hussey re-enacted a role he has played for Australia countless times to nudge Chennai Super Kings to 142 before Albie Morkel and Ravichandran Ashwin dented Pune Warriors’ reply to a level from which they could not recover.

All-round Chennai ease past Pune

Chennai got the better of Pune at Chepauk

By Jamie Alter

 

Chennai: Apr 25, 2011

 

Michael Hussey re-enacted a role he has played for Australia countless times to nudge Chennai Super Kings to 142 before Albie Morkel and Ravichandran Ashwin dented Pune Warriors’ reply to a level from which they could not recover. CSK’s rather outstanding ground fielding put added pressure on a flagging PW chase, which tapered out once it became evident that a laggard Yuvraj Singh wasn’t going to hit anything out of the screws tonight.

 

The Chennai innings began uneasily and a trend of losing wickets at regular intervals continued throughout 20 overs; the openers put on 64 but were pegged back by a double-strike in Alfonso Thomas’ second over – the tenth over of the innings – as both Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina went attempting ambitious shots. That left Hussey to prop the total with an innings mixed with edges and deft placement, and in the overall outcome his 61 off 48 balls proved pivotal.

 

With Vijay, Hussey put on a platform that, while not wrapped in solidity, offered CSK stability. Both openers survived tense calls, none more than Vijay who survived two run-outs in consecutive deliveries and then followed up by edging four to third man, all during one over from Jerome Taylor. Hussey then edged successive deliveries off Murali Kartik for four, but didn’t allow himself to get bogged down and constantly tried to throw the bowlers off guard.

 

A superb tenth over from Thomas swung the momentum back PW’s way, as he mixed short deliveries with a clever change of pace to grab two wickets. Vijay’s charmed innings came to an end on 31 when he miscued a short ball from Thomas to McCullum, and Thomas finished the over by castling Raina with a fuller ball after testing him with a short delivery that evaded mid-off.

 

With Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hussey added a further 52 before PW hit back with three wickets in a clump, two in one over for the second time, and the big over CSK needed never came as Taylor bowled a good final over.

 

The target wasn’t a daunting one, but PW lost Mohnish Mishra with only 19 on the board. Jesse Ryder, after hitting a lovely straight six off Ashwin, was bowled next ball playing down the wrong line of a straighter delivery. Manish Pandey, coming in at No 3 after serving a four-match suspension, lasted only nine balls before he chopped on to his stumps to give Morkel his second wicket. Suddenly PW were 40 for three with two new batsmen at the crease.

 

It only got worse, for instead of trying to settle a shaky chase Robin Uthappa attempted a paddle shot and was bowled around his legs for 0. That wicket-maiden over from Ashwin left CSK pumping their chests. Yuvraj and Mithun Manhas then attempted to wrestle back some of the momentum, putting on 38 in 44 balls to keep PW in the hunt, before Manhas edged Doug Bollinger to leave PW needing 65 from 43.

 

They didn’t get close as shots repeatedly found fielders, Yuvraj struggled to pierce the gaps, his timing majorly off, and throws hit the stumps. In the end PW hobbled along to 117, losing their last four wickets for eight runs. CSK’s dominance in the field was shown by the number of dot balls they bowled – 50.

 

Brief Scores: CSK 142 for 6 in 20 overs (Michael Hussey 61, Murali Vijay 31; Jerome Taylor 3 for 30, Alfonso Thomas 2 for 29, Rahul Sharma 1 for 27) bt PW 117 for 9 in 20 overs (Yuvraj Singh 34,; Albie Morkel 3 for 29, Ravichandran Ashwin 2 for 19, Doug Bollinger 2 for 20) by 25 runs

 

Man of the Match: Michael Hussey

 

(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. He is the author of two books, The History of World Cup Cricket and Field of Dreams: The Story of the Dr. DY Patil Sports Stadium. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter) 

 

 

Pictures © AFP

 

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