MS Dhoni

MSD once again proved his captaincy as he eased victory from the jaws of defeat against the Deccan Chargers. The Chennai Super Kings kept their home record on track this season winning their 4^th home match at Chennai as they successfully defended an asking score of 166.

The Chepauk wicket was a little bit on the slow side this time as runs was hard to comeby. Ojha got rid of the dangerous Murali Vijay early on and was unlucky when Mike Hussey was dropped by Cameroon White on 10 in the same over. Slowly and steadily Hussey and Raina added the runs playing orthodox cricket and with some excellent reverse sweeps from Mr. Cricket runs flowed quickly. When Hussey was dismissed for 46, Raina launched the assault with mammoth sixes. But Ojha was rewarded the very next ball when Ishant Sharma had put down a sitter but not before Raina made a useful 59. Then came the turning point when Albie Morkel bludgeoned Ishant Sharma for 3 consecutive sixes each one breaking his previous record of the six hit distance. The final 114 m hit was the highlight as a new ball was taken and eventually took the team total to 165.

Deccan got off to an unbelievable start as young Sunny Sohal hammered Morkel for 20 runs in an over. Dhoni could only watch the ball sail over the park as Sohal got to his 50 of just 25 balls. But soon was tempted to play some ugly cricketing shots and eventually failed in the reverse sweep. Harsha Boghle tweeted “reverse sweep is a tactical shot, not bread and butter”. Jakati bowled his 4 overs in succession and got the breakthrough of Shikhar Dhawan and ended with figures of 2 for 23. Still the Deccan had to get only 78 odd runs in the last ten overs with the firepower White, Duminy, Christain yet to come. But Ashwin and Bollinger controlled the proceedings in the middle overs and when Bollinger got rid of Sangakkara, the Deccan Chargers were left thinking with the asking rate climbing to 11. Morkel turned things in the 19^th over with huge hitting and bowled a splendid 19^th over claiming the wickets of White and Duminy and giving away just 6 runs. Bollinger had nothing to worry as he finished things off in style and giving his team a 19 run victory.

Dhoni was instrumental in rotating his bowlers and keeping his cool at the right time. They once again proved why they are the champions and now squeeze into the top four. But the real test awaits them on the 4^th as favorite rivals Rajasthan Royals come to Chennai with the aim to distort the CSK home record.

Tags: Chennai Super Kings, Cricket, CSK, DC, Deccan Chargers, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, MSD