The Chennai Super Kings title winning spree came to an end on Tuesday night as they were handed a big defeat by New South Wales. The 2-time IPL champion and last year’s Champions League winner crashed out without reaching the semis for the first time since the franchisee first originated. Captained by Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni it has been one of the most consistent and successful sides over a long period of time. With a devoted fan following, “whistle podu” has indeed been the theme of its performances!
End of the Chennai Super Kings’ regime
Coming from a highly successful IPL 2011, a lot was expected of the side in the Champions League and the side crashed out without making the cut much to everyone’s disappointment. Ruthless in the shortest format of the game, the side is a mix of youth and experience with S. Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Mike Hussey and MS Dhoni forming the crux in batting and talented bowlers in Suraj Randhiv, R. Ashwin, Tim Southee and Doug Bollinger.
The side started the Champions League tournament on the wrong foot with Mumbai Indians’ Lasith Malinga taking the match away from them. Everything was going according to their plans initially with Mike Hussey propelling them to a decent total until the Sri Lankan’s late surge handed them a loss by three wickets. They next came up against Cape Cobras which put their campaign back on track with Dwayne Bravo’s all round effort doing it for them. The Cobras put up a total of 145 with Owais Shah’s knock of 45 and then came back to pick up crucial wickets at regular strikes with JP Duminy’s splendid performance with the ball. Bravo and Dhoni stitched together a partnership of 43 runs to help Chennai wrest back the advantage but Vernon Philander dismissed Dhoni at a vital point in the match giving the Cobras’ another chance. But Bravo backed himself to do the impossible of scoring 23 runs in the last 2 overs with only tail-enders for company and did it in true West Indian style.
The Super Kings faced a must win proposition in their next two matches to see them comfortably through to the next round but all did not go their way this time around. They were up against Trinidad & Tobago who despite putting up a low total of 123, managed to restrict Chennai to 111. It was indeed a matchup between 2 in form West Indians in Kevon Cooper and Dwayne Bravo and the former proved better than the seasoned campaigner. Chennai then had the Himalayan task of beating The Blues by a huge margin and hope for T&T to beat the Cobras. Trinidad helped their cause but they failed to capitalize on this faint glimmer of hope going down meekly to the Aussie side as their batsmen failed to live upto their reputation after David Warner came up with a splendid knock for the NSW Blues putting CSK out of the tournament.
It is time for the Super Kings to face their reality check and sit down and take note of where they went wrong. Many of their players lacked application and appeared too lack luster which was one of the causes of their downfall. The team has to come up with a new strategy and redefine its dexterity before the next IPL, if it wants to live up to its name of a T20 Powerhouse!
Tags: Champions League T20, Chennai Super Kings, CLT20 2011, Cricket, CSK
