IPL 6: Chennai imperious even when imperfect

Winning isn’t always laced with delightful beauty. The road to victory is often laden with ugly bumps and unseemly craters. The battle between the Kings, turned out to be a damp squib as Chennai Super Kings humiliated Kings XI Punjab with a thumping ten wicket victory, despite being far from perfect themselves. But even on a less than princely evening, there was too much separating the two teams. Chennai dismissed the hosts inside the 20 overs after winning the toss and choosing to bowl. The yawning gap between the two sides was underlined repeatedly, with Adam Gilchrist’s men fumbling with regulation chances before stumbling to a crushing defeat.

Chennai Super Kings bowler Dirk Nannes celebrates after taking the wicket of Adam Gilchrist during the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings at Mohali stadium in Punjab on April 10, 2013. (Photo: IANS)

In their first game at home in this edition, Punjab never quite recovered from the double blow they suffered in the third over when they lost both Adam Gilchrist and Mandeep Singh to Dirk Nannes. David Hussey set about repairing the damage – first with Manan Vohra and later with Gurkeerat Singh, but even his best efforts failed to make an impression. Kings XI did have seven wickets left with six overs to play. But when Hussey departed in the fifteenth over after making a patient 41 off 36 balls, the wheels literally came off the Punjab innings. The hosts fluffed their lines from there to lose seven wickets for just 32 runs as the innings folded in the final over.

139 was never going to threaten the formidable Chennai team, but Punjab had to keep things tight on the field if they harboured any hopes of making a fist with their limited resources. Unfortunately, Gilchrist’s men played like Monte Carlo residents at a cheap Asian casino. Even as the CSK team was making subdued progress, a pinch of hard luck deprived Kings XI a wicket when Michael Hussey was ruled not out on a marginal run-out decision. Hussey made the most of his luck to put away Parvinder Awana through the cover point before a single helped him reach 1000 runs in the IPL at an awe inspiring average of 38.53

With Chennai at 43-0 at the end of the 7th over, Punjab had an over that could have possibly turned the course of the game, if at all. But then Piyush Chawla put down a regulation caught and bowled chance off Hussey on the third ball of the eighth over. The Punjab captain compromised his team even further when he failed to gather a straightforward ball that cost them an easy stumping to eliminate Murali Vijay two balls later. As Mohali fell silent at the haplessness of their team, Chennai made the most of their good fortune to rub salt into the Kings XI wounds.

Hussey beat the point fielder twice in a row to milk two boundaries off Awana as the Chennai openers shifted gear to move swiftly towards victory. Chawla was bowling a decent spell at one end but Vijay added to the feast by taking Ryan Harris to the cleaners in the 13th over to break any remaining shackles. Rajagopal Sathish and Azhar Mahmood ensured that their team did not linger too long on the field by giving away 29 runs in two overs to hasten their own demise.

Chennai Super Kings openers Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay are congratulated by Kings XI Punjab players as Chennai Super KIngs won the match by 10 wickets and 16 balls remaining at Mohali stadium in Punjab on April 10, 2013. (Photo: IANS)

Praveen Kumar threw in a short ball that Hussey took on the front foot to dispatch it beyond the square leg boundary with the ferocity of a hungry lion to tie the scores. Hussey’s 79 off 52 and an even 50 for Vijay were far from dominant efforts, but they combined to make the most of their time at the crease by playing themselves into good nick and making the most of the incompetencies of their opponents. As victories come, CSK’s one-sided triumph over an under-matched Punjab was far from pretty but more than effective on the day to clinch victory and add weight to their invaluable rate differential.

At the end of the eleventh IPL encounter, Mumbai Indians have a slender Net Run Rate advantage over Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. All four teams have four points each, but the Royals under Dravid have a game in hand and could leapfrog to the top of the table with a win in their next match against Pune Warriors. Defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders have won one from two and are tied with KXIP and CSK who have also had a similar result. Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors are yet to open their account even after Delhi has played three games whilst Pune have completed two outings.