Sport | Cricket
Chennai stay the kings of Indian Premier League
Vijay and Hussey shine for Super Kings as Gayle falls for a duck
- By K.R. Nayar, Chief Cricket Writer, Gulf News
- Published: 00:05 May 29, 2011
- Image Credit: AP
- Players of Chennai Super Kings celebrate after they won the Indian Premier League final against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai, India. Cricket fans of Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata will get to see the best of international stars once again in action as the cricket feast resumes in India
Dubai: Chennai Super Kings extended their reign in the Indian Premier League (IPL), trouncing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in a one-sided final at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk Saturday.
It was a day when everything went right for Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, starting with the toss. He ended the day adding yet another feather to his captaincy - six weeks after winning the World Cup for India. The yellow shirts can now boast a phenomenal record in the IPL with two triumphs in a row and making three of the
four finals.
Electing to bat first, his openers Murali Vijay and Michael Hussey put on 159 runs in 14.5 overs and helped to post an impressive 205 for five.
Vijay cracked a sparkling 95 off 52 balls while Hussey scored 63 runs off 45
balls.
After posting a run rate of 10.25 runs per over, all that Dhoni wanted was
the wicket of Bangalore’s opener Chris Gayle. Off spinner Ravinchandran
Ashwin did it again by dismissing the dangerous Gayle to the fourth ball of
the innings for a duck.
The whole stadium roared in applause as Gayle, the highest scorer of the tournament with 511 runs from nine matches. walked back to pavilion.
The packed home crowd supporters knew that the match had almost been won.
Before the applause died down Ashwin struck again with the third ball of his
next over dismissing opener Mayank Agarwal for 10.
Both teams went in with unchanged teams with Chennai maintaining the same team from their last six matches
For Chennai, Hussey and Vijay batted fluently with the ball coming into the bat. The first six of the match came from Vijay, who hit Sreenath Aravind last ball of the second over through mid wicket.
Hussey hit the first ball of the next over from Zaheer Khan over square leg. The first five overs produced 48 runs.
Spinners Gayle and Syed Mohammad, who were introduced early into the attack, could not check the run flow. At 84 for no loss, Chennai recorded their highest opening stand in this IPL edition. By the tenth, the openers had attained a run rate of 9.40 runs and the batsmen had already hit five sixes with three boundaries.
Massacre
Through a flowing cover drive from Hussey, Chennai reached the 100-run mark in 10.3 overs. The only time it looked like the partnership may break was when Hussey almost got run out in the first ball of the 12th over. The rest of the over was mere massacre from Vijay, who hit two spectacular sixes to take 18 runs from the over.
The first ball of the 14th over from Mohammad was hit by Hussey to the roof top of the stadium and Chennai raced past the 150 run mark in the over. Hussey fell at his score on 63 after putting on 159 runs in 14.5 overs.
Scores
Chennai Super Kings 205/5 in 20 overs (M.Vijay 95, M.Hussey 63, S.Arvind 2-39, C.Gayle 2-34) vs Royal Challengers 147/8 in 20 overs (S.Tiwary 42, V.Kohli 35, R.Ashwin 3-16). Chennai won by 58 runs.
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