SURESH Raina scored a polished 63 and skipper MS Dhoni smashed a brilliant 45 as Chennai Super Kings consolidated their position at the top of the table with a comprehensive 37-run win over Pune Warriors in Pune on Tuesday (April 30).
Chasing 165, Pune never looked the part. Pacer Mohit Sharma rocked the top order by claiming Aaron Finch (15), T Suman (0) and Yuvraj Singh (5). The hosts never quite recovered and managed just 127 for nine in 20 overs. Chennai have 16 points from 10 games, while stay at the bottom with four from the same number of matches.
Earlier, Pune did come up with a good bowling performance to restrict Chennai in the initial overs. But they failed to maintain the pressure and a sensible 63-run knock from Raina and his 61-run partnership with skipper Dhoni put the visitors in a comfortable position. For the record, Chennai posted 164/3 at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Tuesday.
Dhoni elected to bat and opener Michael Hussey made his intentions clear by collecting a boundary off the very first ball bowled by Rahul Sharma. However, medium pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kane Richardson restricted the flow of runs.
Richardson, who made his IPL debut against Delhi Daredevils in Raipur the other day, bowled around the wicket to knock off Hussey’s (5) off stump in the third over.
Fellow opener Wriddhiman Saha released the pressure by collecting 11 runs off Richardson’s second over. A hit one over the bowler’s head before executing a perfect cover drive brought CSK back in the game. But just as Saha started to call the shots, he fell to a short-pitched delivery bowled by Rahul Sharma. Saha swept a ball pitched around leg stump, only to get hit around the knee roll. He was promptly adjudged LBW.
Raina, who survived a close call early in his innings, got another life at 17. A short ball from Ashok Dinda prompted Raina to go for the pull.
