Published: Apr 25, 2015, 09:43 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 25, 2015, 09:43 PM (IST)
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) posted a formidable total of 192 for three against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015. Led by Brendon McCullum and MS Dhoni, CSK got to the big score as they try to record a win against KXIP this year. In IPL 2014, KXIP had beaten CSK in all their three encounters, which included one of the playoff games.
CSK won the toss and chose to bat first. Unsurprisingly, they were coming into the game with an unchanged side. KXIP had two changes as they brought back George Bailey and Karanveer Singh. And, they dropped Shivam Sharma and Glenn Maxwell, who hasn’t been in form this year. However, Maxwell has a great record against CSK and will they miss him in the big run-chase?
Dwayne Smith and McCullum opened the batting as usual and it was carnage. KXIP began with Karanveer and the CSK openers were on song. Smith smashed Karnaveer for 22 runs in the third over of the game. Watching him getting into flow, McCullum too started playing his shots. While the carnage was mellow when compared to the assault against Mumbai Indians (MI), they managed to get to their fifty inside five overs.
KXIP had a tough day in the field with mistakes being committed at various stages. The most notable miss was when Mitchell Johnson dropped a skier of McCullum, who was batting on 21 at the time. The openers had put up 50 in 4.4 overs before Smith was dismissed.
Suresh Raina came in at No. 3 and was largely mellow as McCullum powered the innings. With a big-hit off Johnson in the 10th over, McCullum got to his fifty off 32 balls. Johnson had another shocker when he dropped Raina in the deep, which was a fairly easy chance. CSK lost a bit of momentum when McCullum was caught off Akshar Patel in the deep in the 12th over.
Dhoni walked in at No. 4 and looked intent on regaining his form. He did managed a few big hits, but one of his shots resulted in Raina’s dismissal as the ball deflected from the bowler’s hand and hit the stumps. Dhoni did well to knock it around and steal couples consistently. It wasn’t only about the big hits as he kept pace with the small contributions. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 41 and Sandeep Sharma’s good final over prevented CSK from reaching 200.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 192 for 3 (Brendon McCullum 66, MS Dhoni 41* ; Anureet Singh 1 for 40, Akshar Patel 1 for 35) vs Kings XI Punjab.
(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_45)
