The Tension was high with 2 strong batting line-ups eager to clash up with each other.Even better, its the clash of 2 brute forces the IPL can ever witness. With the odds ,of Chennai team winning over Punjab team on 3 occasions the previous season, was well in favour with MSD.Despite the nature of pitch, he was so convinced on his batting force led in front by Hayden, that he did not even hesitate for a moment that he choose to bat first.
And thus started the innings,where the chennai team's opening combination of hayden and badrinath not lasting as long as expected, with badri being caught on first ball from Irfan. That was the only time, Punjab was happy.. But then,reinforcements came in form of Raina, the star middle order batsman of chennai starting to score at the regular format the chennai team had fared so far. Later with the interruptions of rain forced the play to halt for sometime due to which the D\L method was used and shortened the 20 over game to 18 over game for each.
With the rain departing from the act, chennai started to fly high again only to see Raina get caught.In the mean time, hayden sneaked past the bowlers after surviving a stumping chance when Sangakarra missed the oppurtunity.Enter Captain Marvel, and the ruthless assault begins. Now, we know MSD was not at his best in this tournament, that is until he managed to regain his ownself in previous encounter.He was in such a stunning form that he was an unstoppable jaggernaut, joined forces with the immovable Hayden who punished the punjab bowling attack.The duo managed to stay almost the end the innings to post a total of 185 for the loss of 3 wickets when hayden fell short of his century by 11 runs in the penultimate over of the innings.
And now we start with the Punjab innings and the Chennai bowling's demoralization.Morkel gave the break through as usual for the super kings, with Sohal falling in the 2nd ball of the innings. After that, we had simon katich to take guard of the punjab's front attack playing pure cricket shots which was no luck or slog for that matter.The brilliance of the aussie batting should definitely be praised here cause such was the performance of hayden and katich that any cricket player would dream to come by some day.Katich reached his half century only to be taken out of the attack by Balaji, while Jakati the sensational spinner took the wicket of Goel. Thus far was the luck of the bowlers for both the teams... And then comes the trump card of Punjab team with jayawardene playing the partner roll.Yuvraj singh comes into play and there was no turning back from then, except when Gony missed the catch of the yuvi at 22. They added 60 runs from 4.5 balls and the target was brought down to 43 runs from 24 balls, when MSD decided to set the brakes in the innings of the agile punjab batting brilliance.Raina came in to give just 8 runs of his 2 overs while Balaji plotted up the slow balls mixing it up with yorkers. And the doors shut by with Punjab team chasing a mammoth total failing to impress the mounted target with an asking rate of 10+ an over.
Hayden was the doubtless choice for man of the match.He was all happy bout the team performance except for the fielding area. Not the first time that the team's flimsy catching were brought to the spot light. But then, they managed to pull it out at the right time,with 4 consecutive wins in hands after a disappointing start. Chennai team now stands on top of the stats both in points and runrate.
And thus started the innings,where the chennai team's opening combination of hayden and badrinath not lasting as long as expected, with badri being caught on first ball from Irfan. That was the only time, Punjab was happy.. But then,reinforcements came in form of Raina, the star middle order batsman of chennai starting to score at the regular format the chennai team had fared so far. Later with the interruptions of rain forced the play to halt for sometime due to which the D\L method was used and shortened the 20 over game to 18 over game for each.
With the rain departing from the act, chennai started to fly high again only to see Raina get caught.In the mean time, hayden sneaked past the bowlers after surviving a stumping chance when Sangakarra missed the oppurtunity.Enter Captain Marvel, and the ruthless assault begins. Now, we know MSD was not at his best in this tournament, that is until he managed to regain his ownself in previous encounter.He was in such a stunning form that he was an unstoppable jaggernaut, joined forces with the immovable Hayden who punished the punjab bowling attack.The duo managed to stay almost the end the innings to post a total of 185 for the loss of 3 wickets when hayden fell short of his century by 11 runs in the penultimate over of the innings.
And now we start with the Punjab innings and the Chennai bowling's demoralization.Morkel gave the break through as usual for the super kings, with Sohal falling in the 2nd ball of the innings. After that, we had simon katich to take guard of the punjab's front attack playing pure cricket shots which was no luck or slog for that matter.The brilliance of the aussie batting should definitely be praised here cause such was the performance of hayden and katich that any cricket player would dream to come by some day.Katich reached his half century only to be taken out of the attack by Balaji, while Jakati the sensational spinner took the wicket of Goel. Thus far was the luck of the bowlers for both the teams... And then comes the trump card of Punjab team with jayawardene playing the partner roll.Yuvraj singh comes into play and there was no turning back from then, except when Gony missed the catch of the yuvi at 22. They added 60 runs from 4.5 balls and the target was brought down to 43 runs from 24 balls, when MSD decided to set the brakes in the innings of the agile punjab batting brilliance.Raina came in to give just 8 runs of his 2 overs while Balaji plotted up the slow balls mixing it up with yorkers. And the doors shut by with Punjab team chasing a mammoth total failing to impress the mounted target with an asking rate of 10+ an over.
Hayden was the doubtless choice for man of the match.He was all happy bout the team performance except for the fielding area. Not the first time that the team's flimsy catching were brought to the spot light. But then, they managed to pull it out at the right time,with 4 consecutive wins in hands after a disappointing start. Chennai team now stands on top of the stats both in points and runrate.
