Published: Apr 18, 2014, 05:10 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 18, 2014, 05:10 PM (IST)
Apr 18, 2014
Into the last five overs of their inings, the Chennai Super Kings are sitting pretty at 145 for the loss of one wicket at the end of the 15th over in their first IPL 2014 encounter against Kings XI Punjab in Abu Dhabi. Both of CSK’s openers, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith have laid a solid foundation to post a mammoth total. Both of them looked exquisite in their timing and explosive in their shot making. McCullum, in particular dispatched all the bowlers all over the Abu Dhabi stadium.
The New Zealand captain brought up his fifty in the eighth over of the innings with a boundary off Rishi Dhawan. The duo brought up their 100-run partnership in the 10th over. The partnership finally ended in the 13th over, when McCullum miscued a pull off Akshar Patel, and holed out to Glenn Maxwell in deep square-leg. He scored 67 off just 45 balls.
The dismissal of the Kiwi brought CSK’s most successful batsman, Suresh Raina to the crease. Raina is playing in his 100th IPL match.
Earlier in the day, opening the batting for the Chennai Super Kings, Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum batted brilliantly in the powerplay overs, amassing 70 in the first six. Both of them started off well against spinner, Akshar Patel, who opened the bowling for the Kings XI Punjab. They managed nine runs off the first over. Parvinder Awana started the attack alongside spinner Patel. And he too wasn’t spared by McCullum in his first over. He greeted the Indian pacer with a six and a four off consecutive deliveries. Awana then lost his line and conceded a couple of wides in the same over.
Mitchell Johnson then came into the attack in the third over. He too was treated with disdain by both the batsmen as Smith hit him for a four and six in his very first over. Awana continued and both batsmen have teared him apart so far.
McCullum brought up 5000 runs in Twenty20 cricket as well.
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