NEW DELHI - Suresh Raina’s 57-ball 84 and MS Dhoni’s 19-ball 63 followed by some impressive bowling helped Chennai Super Kings register a 12-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Champions League Twenty20 match at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi on Thursday.
Chennai Super Kings fought back as they took five quick wickets to reduce Sunrisers to 138/5 after a solid first wicket stand in their chase of 203. A goof up on the track saw Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Parthiv Patel getting run out after a brisk 88-run stand for the first wicket with Shikhar Dhawan. Patel scored 38 of 28 balls before falling in the 10th over.
Suresh Raina then struck to give Sunrisers second blow after addition of two runs on the board by removing JP Duminy. Dhawan soon joined his partners in the dressing room by getting caught behind of R Ashwin. He fell two short of his half ton. Just after the visitors crossed 100-mark, Dwayne Bravo gave them fourth blow in the form of Thisara Perera.
Chasing a massive 203, Sunrisers got off to a solid start as both openers took the side past 50 in just 5.1 overs. Suresh Raina smashed a quickfire half-century while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni produced a belligerent unbeaten knock of 63 as Chennai Super Kings toyed with a listless Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling attack to post a massive 202/4.
Raina’s impressive 57-ball 84 was perfectly matched by Dhoni’s pyrotechnics as the hard-hitting local skipper broke the spirits of the Sunrisers bowlers with his ruthless batting display, here today. Such was the brutality as neither speed nor spin provided any challenge to Dhoni as he decorated his 19-ball knock with an astonishing eight sixes.
There was no mistaking the impact Dhoni’s arrival had on the innings and no one could better understand it than Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera, who was smashed for five huge sixes in the 18th over. Dhoni, in the process, also struck the fastest fifty in the history of the Champions League, reaching the landmark in just 16 balls and surpassing West Indian Kieron Pollard’s record (50 off 18 balls).
Dhoni played a leader’s innings of the finest order and, together with Raina, put on a 60-run partnership in just 23 balls for the fourth wicket. Before Dhoni’s arrival, the show belonged entirely to Raina and his powerful stroke-play.
Walking in to bat after the dismissal of opener Murali Vijay, Raina took time to get his eyes in and then made the most of the Sunrisers’ tactics of utilising pace against him. Raina unleashed an assault on the Sunrisers pacers in the middle part of the innings, launching them over the mid-wicket and long-off boundaries with consummate ease.
Raina walked back to the pavillion in the penultimate over of the innings when he single-handedly caught by Perera at long on off Dale Steyn. Raina’s fine knock was decorated with nine fours and a six.