In a crucial encounter that required both teams to come onto the field with intensity, the Chennai batsmen found themselves heavy footed as Deccan Chargers began their resurrection to stay alive.
Tirumalasetti Suman once again let his batting do the talking for him, scoring a second successive half century and that too critically when his team need these wins to stay alive to qualify for the IPL 3 semi finals.
Mohnish Mishra stuck around at the start of the innings even though Adam Gilchrist was consumed courtesy a stumping by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Balchandran Ashwin, a similar dismissal that would later see the back of Mishra. But it was Andrew Symonds who is making himself a fixture at the end of the Chargers innings, once again giving good support to Suman.
CSK did begin well, employing their spin resources early on the track in Nagpur that was not really a run fest. And it tied down the Chargers initially to the extent that the run rate jumped to 8.5 with the team tilting ever so slightly in the favour of the visitors.
However, it took the quiet resourcefulness of Suman and he launched into an onslaught once he settled in, completely taking the off guard CSK team by surprise. Suman’s thumping accelerated their victory after Chennai thought they had put the brakes on the scoring rate. The partnership, worth forty-six runs, was the back breaker as far as the Chennai team were concerned, undoing the hope they had as they appeared to strangle their opponents in the first half of the Deccan Chargers’ batting.
Earlier in the day, Chennai chose to bat first but they failed to get going enough to worry the opposition captain. The Deccan Chargers for their part hit back by taking wickets at such remarkably regular intervals that Chennai were never allowed to launch. And when they did try, they were held back by Harmeet Singh and by the wicket taking Australian fast medium bowler, Ryan Harris, who picked three wickets in the match.
In that sense, Suresh Raina must have come across as an oddity, trying to inject much needed sense of pursuit in the innings, scoring a half century along the way but none else to help him carry it forward as CSK could only manage a paltry 138.
There were glimpses but no take offs from Murali Vijay and Matthew Hayden,
2010 IPL 3 Match 41: Red Hot KXIP Give Mumbai Indians a Nasty Surprise
2010 IPL 3 Match 40: Chargers Find a Majestic Win Against RCB; Live to Fight Another Day
IPL 3 Match 39: Daredevils Lose Nerve and Slip Against Spot-On Knight Riders
2010 IPL 3 Match 38: Under performing KXIP Beaten by Overpowering Lumb; Sreesanth Loses It
2010 IPL 3 Match 37: Chennai Rock as MI Fail Once Tendulkar Succumbs to the Heat
2010 IPL 3 Match 36: Deccan Chargers Fail to Ignite Again
2010 IPL 3 Match 35: Collingwood Shines Brighter for Daredevils In Battle Royale
Follow the action trail for all of the IPL 3 season:
2010 IPL 3 Schedule of Matches, IPL3 Points Tally, IPL 3 Team Squads, News in the Run Up
2010 IPL 3 Match 34: Mahela Helps KXIP Register their Second IPL 3 Win, Overpowering Gayle
