Rain tends to favour chasing teams, if it's impact is expected. On Wednesday, sunny skies welcomed Kings XI and Knight Riders but as the evening waned, the weather soured. Kings XI would not have been flustered by a target of 164, but the advent of a non-stop drizzle in the third over meant they had to tackle one of the wilier bowling attacks with the prospect of the match being curtailed at any given moment. Having fallen behind the Duckworth-Lewis equation, one of the most assured batting line-ups suddenly looked out of their depth, but they have another crack on Friday when they meet the winner of the eliminator.
The jitters began when Manan Vohra, empowered by a few solid hits, miscued to long-on. His 26 off 19 had originally put Kings XI ahead on the rain rule but now they were four runs behind par. Glenn Maxwell's attempts to dance around the crease to upset the bowler's rhythm backfired when he was found plumb in front. Kings XI were 11 behind and the downward spiral steepened.
Umesh Yadav was not among those bound for England in July. His chosen way to vent was an opening spell of 2 for 12 in three overs. As rain persisted, the batsmen were uncertain regarding the length of the match and the approach they should employ. If they took undue risks and the game ended up lasting the 20 overs, they could end up without enough batsmen. If they didn't press on, Knight Riders would clinch the game with ease.
Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller flailed at the crease, attempting to hit on the up and hack across the line, and by the time their struggle came to an end their side was more than 20 runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis equation.
With the umpires doing their best to ensure a full game - at one point they waved the invading groundsmen off the field to ensure five overs of the chase were completed - the Knight Riders spinners continued the strangle. Shakib Al Hasan and Piyush Chawla grabbed a wicket each, while conceding only 11 runs in three overs, as Kings XI meandered to 97 for 6 in after 16 overs. George Bailey attempted a counterattack, but Sunil Narine kept the penultimate over to four runs to all but seal the result.
Spin had played a prominent part in the first innings as well. Akshar Patel snared the in-form Robin Uthappa and a struggling Manish Pandey in the same over. Karanveer Singh furthered his stocks with three wickets. However, in between their strikes Knight Riders had benefited from important cameos to secure a formidable total.
Uthappa was at his fluent best again, depositing Mitchell Johnson and Parvinder Awana into the crowd with authoritative pulls. Having showcased his skills off the back foot, he drilled some eye-catching drives both through and over the off side field to fuel his 10th 40-plus score on the trot. His exit however seemed to drain Knight Riders' momentum until Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan contributed 41 off 33 balls in the push towards the death overs.
Both batsmen fell just before a 20-minute break for rain, but Chawla, Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan ten Doeschate managed 49 runs in the final four overs to provide more than enough cushion for their bowling attack.
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Chennai Super Kings’ all-round effort with bat helps beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in IPL 2014 eliminator
On a placid wicket Lendl Simmons continued his fine form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 and scored yet another fine half-century to propel Mumbai Indians to a competitive 173 for eight after Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s won the toss and elected to field first.
Dwayne Smith took no time to get things under way for Chennai with a a typical one-legged flick that reached the fence. Chennai was on the march right away. Faf du Plessis looked even more comfortable at the crease after Corey Anderson was given the new ball to bowl.
It was a wrong move from Rohit Sharma and it backfired straight away. Du Plessis came down the track to whack a boundary past mid-off and then the ball reached the deep-mid wicket fence with a ferocious pull shot. Then there was a loud leg-before appeal and it was turned down by the umpire. It was a good decision by Bruce Oxenford as the ball took a big inside edge.
Catches win matches is an old adage that has always proven to be true over the years. In a crunch tie, a knock-out tie like this, you don’t drop catches of a player of the caliber of du Plessis. The ball went high in the air and a mix up between harbhajan singh and Ambati Rayudu ensued and a golden chance to strike an early blow was lost as it fell in no-man’s land.
The South African willow-wielder was in full flow and there was huge six over deep-mid wicket and then went for a the same pull shot that reached the boundary. Dwayne Smith was in full cry against the pace of youngster Jasprit Bumrah. smith eased to three consecutive boundaries of the over and the score raced to 60 for no loss in six overs. Just like his counterpart MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma also turned to his spinners and for wickets and he was immediately rewarded from the wrists of the wily old hands of Harbhajan Singh. Both batsmen fell in identical fashion. First Smith went big on the leg side but only found the massive palms of Kieron Pollard. du Plessis also departed playing an needless loft trying to clear the boundary.
McCullum went for a wild heave and perished too after he was caught outside his crease trying to go for a wild heave and was smartly stumped by Aditya Tare of the bowling of Pragyan Ojha. IPL is his battleground and Suresh Raina was easing along with his characteristic flicks and cuts to steady the chase.
David Hussey was giving company in the middle and he started very slowly. After carefully seeing things through in the early overs, Hussey clobbered two massive sixes and Raina smashed another six and the the target was in touching distance. Raina now has 400 runs in each of the IPL’s played so far and yet another fifty towards the end and finished things off with a stylish boundary. On this form, Chennai will hold all the aces in the upcoming knock-out games.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 173 for 8 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 67, Michael Hussey 39, Corey Anderson 20; Mohit Sharma 3 for 42, Ravindra Jadeja 2 for 31) lost to Chennai Super Kings 176 for 3 in 18.4 overs (Faf du Plessis 35, Suresh Raina, David Hussey; Harbhajan Singh 2 for 27) by 7 wickets.
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