Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from the front as the Chennai Super Kings rebounded to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 55 runs for their first win in two matches in the Indian Premier League T20 tournament, here on Tuesday night.
Batting first on winning the toss, the Super Kings recovered from a poor start to post 164 for three in 20 overs, scoring 83 runs in the last six overs and then dismissed the Knight Riders, who had won both their previous matches, for 109.
The foundation for the Super Kings' victory was laid by Man of the Match Dhoni who struck a brilliant unbeaten 66 and along with Subramaniam Badrinath (43 not out), added 109 runs for the fourth wicket after the Super Kings were struggling at 55 for three in the 10th over.
Later, Dhoni shrugged off a painful right elbow where he was struck by an express delivery from Shane Bond, to lead his team to a resounding victory through some shrewd bowling changes as the Super Kings raised their game when it mattered most.
Among the heroes for Super Kings was South African all-rounder Justin Kemp who took three wickets for 12 runs off his three overs while fellow-seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji chipped in with two for nine.
The onus was on the Super Kings bowlers when the Riders began their chase and as in the past, Albie Morkel struck in the very first over, dismissing Brad Hodge off the second delivery and at the other end, Manoj Tiwari departed after hitting Manpreet Gony for two consecutive balls before being bowled off the next.
Gony should have picked up another wicket in the same over, but Matthew Hayden in the slips dropped a high catch off Wriddhiman Saha who went on to strike a few boundaries. The introduction of Balaji in the fifth over fetched the visitors more dividends as the wily seamer uprooted Saha's stumps and in his next over, had Owais Shah caught behind.
The Knight Riders slid deeper into trouble when skipper Sourav Ganguly lofted Kemp to Morkel and the home team was tottering at 55 for five. Kemp should have pouched another wicket in the same over, but Dhoni, diving to his right, dropped Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
The Super Kings bowlers kept the pressure on and took wickets at regular intervals thereafter as Kemp trapped Angelo Mathews in front and then Murali Vijay took a brilliant running catch in the deep to get rid of Rohan Gavaskar as the South African seamer picked up his third wicket.
The Knight Riders then caved in as the Super Kings tightened their grip on the proceedings to pull off a magnificent victory that underlined team effort besides a couple of brilliant individual performances.
Earlier, the Super Kings began disastrously, losing their main run-getter Hayden in the fourth over and soon after, Vijay who was looking good for many more, in the eighth, followed by Suresh Raina in the 10th.
At 55-3, the Super Kings were in a bad shape, especially with the Knight Riders attack threatening to rip through. The movement off the seam caused a bit of a bother to the Super Kings top order batsmen and the loss of wickets was not much of a surprise.
Kiwi fast bowler, Shane Bond, showing no signs of a jet lag after having flown in yesterday from New Zealand, bowled with pace and fire while his new ball partner Ishant Sharma troubled the batsmen with late movement. Complimenting their effort was left-arm spinner Murali Karthik who bowled a miserly four overs for just 21 runs to peg the Super Kings.
However, in the latter part of the innings, Dhoni took charge as only he could and showcased his big-hitting ability after surviving a life early in his knock, being dropped by wicket-keeper Saha on the leg-side.
With Dhoni on fire, Badrinath lent him brilliant support, running hard between the wickets and occasionally, coming up with the big shots. The momentum of the partnership picked up considerably in the last six overs when the pair added 86 runs.
In the process, Dhoni, who was struck a painful blow on the right arm facing Bond, and Badrinath completed a century stand that was worth its weight in gold.
Dhoni, in particular, played some glorious shots, notably the massive six off Bond in the 19th over and Badrinath followed suit in the next with a superb pick-up six off Ishant Sharma to maintain the pace of scoring.
So much so that the last two overs fetched Super Kings 33 runs and it gave them a chance to make a match of it.
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