Skipper Dhoni’s late charge, Mohit’s 3-for win it for Chennai
Chennai Super Kings furthered their place at top of the points table with an easy win over Pune Warriors at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on Tuesday. The Chennai brigade beat the hosts by 37 runs to be at 16 points from 10 matches in the Indian Premier league.
After Suresh Raina worked his way to a superb 63 and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit a blistering 16-ball 45 as Super Kings overcame a poor start to post a challenging 164 for three, Mohit Sharma led the visiting attack by claiming three wickets for 21 runs. The hosts could manage only 127 runs for the loss of nine wickets in reply.
Paceman Sharma rocked the Pune top-order in a fiery spell in which he dismissed Aaron Finch (15), T Suman (0) and Yuvraj Singh (5). Steven Smith was the highest scorer for the Warriors, with 35 runs off 39 balls. Kane Richardson tried to do his bit towards the end but could not go any further than his knock of 26 runs off 20 balls.
Raina showed a lot of maturity while batting as he did the spade work along with S Badrinath while Dhoni provided the late fireworks in side's remarkable recovery. After losing Michael Hussey (5) and Wriddhiman Sahara (13) early, Raina and Badrinath (34) steadied the ship with a 75-run stand for the third wicket.
But it was 61-run unbeaten partnership between Raina and Dhoni for the fourth wicket that spoilt all the good work Pune bowlers had done earlier.
It rained fours and sixes when Dhoni batted as Chennai collected 50 runs in the last four overs. Dhoni punished hapless bowlers with seven boundaries including three sixes, the last one coming off the last ball.
Young Australian paceman Kane Richardson and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar bowled a fiery spell in the beginning to subdue the dangerous visitors. Richardson knocked over Hussey in his third ball to give his side a rousing start.
Such ferocious was the attack that it took other opener Saha nine balls to get off the mark. The stumper though hit Richardson for a straight six and a four through cover region in the fifth over to break the shackles. leg-spinner Rahul Sharma, too was impressive, as he was not only economical but also trapped Saha (13) to give Chennai the second blow. The visitors were 29 for 2 in six overs.
Encouraged by the pace-friendly pitch, skipper Aaron Finch smartly rotated Ashok Dinda, Abhishek Nayar and Kumar as Raina and Badrinath took some time to settle.
Pune fielders were sharp in the field but luke Wright failed to latch on to a mistimed pull by Raina at short-midwicket in the ninth over. The duo took Chennai 102 for 2 in 15 overs before Badrinath holed out in deep to Steven Smith off Wright.
But he had done his job well, setting the stage for onslaught in the concluding overs.
Dhoni arrived at the wicket and straight away hit Wright for a four and a six and then treated Dinda with similar disdain.
Meanwhile, Raina completed his fifty but it was Dhoni's blistering knock that took Chennai past 150-run mark.
Brief Scores
Chennai Super Kings: 164 for 3 in 20 overs. (Suresh Raina 63 not out, M S Dhoni 45 not out; luke Wright 1/12) beat Pune Warriors: 127 for 9 in 20 overs (Steven Smith 35, Kane Richardon 26; Mohit Sharma 3/21) by 37 runs.