CSK chase down 186-run target set by Titans with 7 balls to spare
Riding on a solid batting performance, the formidable Chennai Super Kings opened their Champions league Twenty20 campaign in style, defeating South Africa’s Titans by four wickets in a high-scoring encounter here on Sunday.
Mike Hussey (47) and Suresh Raina (47) clobbered the Titan bowlers to add 89 runs in just 44 balls for the second-wicket, which swung the match decisively in CSK’s favour.
Off the field, CSK supremo N Srinivasan might be facing a lot of trouble but on the field, his players did not have any discomfort in chasing down a daunting target of 186 with seven balls to spare. Dwayne Bravo too played an enterprising innings of 26-ball 38, laced with four fours and two sixes, as Chennai scored 187 for six in 18.5 overs.
Hussey and Raina negated AB de Villiers’ whirlwind half-century for the Titans in the first innings as the CSK squeezed their way to a comprehensive win.
De Villiers would have thought the job was done after his 36-ball 77 helped the Titans post a daunting target for Chennai. However, Hussey and Raina made proficient use of an insipid line bowled by the Titan bowlers and stitched a match-winning partnership after the early loss of opener Murali Vijay (0), who was bowled by an arm ball by Roelof van der Merwe.
Titan bowlers erred by feeding Hussey and Raina with short-pitched deliveries that were dispatched to the deep mid-wicket fence on most occasions. Both put on display their prolific shotmaking and quick running between the wickets as they brought the home crowd to their feet.
Earlier, de Villiers’s hurricane 36-ball 77 and skipper Henry Davids’ responsible 52 paved the way for Titans’ challenging 185 for five.
Sent in to bat, South African T20 runners-up Titans built on the 39-ball 76-run partnership between Davids and de Villiers for the second wicket to post a competitive total at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium.
De Villiers played a whirlwind knock and treated the CSK bowlers with disdain. The right-hander was at his destructive best and blasted as many as seven sixes and three fours during his brutal display of strokeplay. Even after the departure of Davids in the 14th over, de Villiers remained the star of the show and seemed in no mood to relent. His innings saw Titans posting the highest total of the tournament till date. De Villiers was particularly harsh on left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja as the bowler leaked 49 runs from his three overs.
Playing in front of CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s home crowd, Titans started the proceedings on a confident note as Davids and Jacques Rudolph (21), who had scored a double hundred on his Test debut vs Bangladesh, put on 46 runs for the opening-wicket partnership.
Brief Scores
Titans: 185/5 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 77, Henry Davids 52; Dwayne Bravo 2/34) lost to Chennai Super Kings: 187/6 in 20 overs (Mike Hussey 47, Suresh Raina 47; Rowan Richards 3/29) by 4 wickets.