Kochi Tuskers Kerala
After surprising the Mumbai Indians, last season’s runners-up, Kochi went one better this time as they beat the defending champions Chennai Super Kings to make the other teams sit up and take notice of them. It was also their first victory on home turf while Chennai slumped to their second defeat of the season.
Mahela Jayawardene, as he had done against Mumbai, won the toss and decided to field first under overcast skies. Kochi continued to leave Sreesanth and Muralitharan on the bench while Chennai gave Bollinger his first game leaving thus leaving out the spin option of Randiv. Kochi started in ominous fashion as man of the match from the previous game Hussey played and missed R.P Singh twice in the first over. Vinay Kumar followed it up with a tight over and R.P. Singh finally found Hussey’s edge to send him back to the pavilion. Suresh Raina, who has struggled to find his feet this tournament combined with Vijay to do the rebuilding task. Vijay played a few exquisite drives before he fell to Perera in the eighth over for 29. The strategic time-out at the end of the ninth over turned out to be a longer one than expected as rains lashed Kochi keeping the players indoors. Play was suspended for an hour and a half and when it resumed, the match was reduced to 17 overs a side.
Badrinath and Raina resumed proceedings as they decided to attack right away. Badrinath fell in the thirteenth over trying to improvise but Raina carried on carting Gomez for a six and a four to bring up his half century. A late flourish from Dhoni and Morkel enabled Chennai to reach a modest 131 in their allotted overs.
Jayawardene, after the success in the previous game, walked out to open with McCullum. McCullum continued from where he left off in the previous game as he hit Morkel right over his head for a six. He continued to wreck havoc as he took another ten runs from Morkel’s next. Jayawardene joined the party as he welcomed Ashwin into the attack with a six and a four. But it was Ashwin who had the last laugh as he Jayawardene mistimed one into the hands of cover. Parthiv Patel got off to a quick start as he hit three boundaries in his first ten balls. But this was going to be the McCullum show! He greeted Jakati with a six before pulling Southee for two more boundaries. Kochi were 90/1 at the end of the tenth over and there was no way they were going to lose from here. Ashwin got rid of McCullum for a well made 47 but Patel and Hodge ensured that there were no more hiccups. Jadeja finished it off in style yet again as he smashed 16 runs of 6 balls as Kochi leapfrogged Chennai to jump into fourth on the table. McCullum was adjudged his second consecutive man of the match while Chennai were left cursing the rain interruption!
Tags: Chennai Super Kings, Cricket, CSK, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, Kochi, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, KTK, Mahela Jayawardene
