CLT20 2011 Match 9: Chennai Super Kings Get Thrilling Finish of a Win over Cape Cobras

The Chennai Super Kings really needed a win to stay in the competition. The Cape Cobras wanted to establish ascendancy and they almost did, until Dwayne Bravo, for one, destroyed their finish in the Champions League Twenty20 2011.

Dwayne Bravo

The Cape Cobras, in hindsight, will rue the fact that they lost as many wickets as they did towards the end of their innings when it seemed that they could have set a total that could have tested the defending champions even more. Justin Kemp, the Cape Cobras, will certainly have a few things to reflect on, including the fact that the South African team is making a couple of uncharacteristic fielding lapses that could have well swung the momentum of the match.

The Chennai Super Kings have often batted deep to begin with. It has in a way compensated for the fact that they have not had all round bowling attack that could win them the match outright. And it was a good thing that the Chennai Super Kings were batting heavy in the match against the Cape Cobras because they needed every inch of talent to get across the line.

The Cape Cobras’ sustenance in their batting came from the partnership between Owais Shah and JP Duminy. In fact Shah’s forty-five from thirty-eight balls was the top score of the Cape Cobras innings. However, the Cape Cobras will have to rewind to look at the fact that when it seemed that they had crossed the 130 mark with five overs remaining, they underscored and lost a plethora of wickets to be undercooked at 145.

The Chennai Super Kings were struggling at three down for fifty-three in the eighth over and again at five for seventy-seven with Suresh Raina back. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings, though was holding his own even as Chennai Super Kings needed one or two overs to make a real case for themselves as the match appeared to be slipping away from them with wickets tumbling and runs becoming increasingly hard to get.

Dwayne Bravo’s forty-six runs from only twenty-five balls stole the match from the Cape Cobras who were wary of the Chennai Super Kings’ depth in batting despite the fact that the runs per ball had shot up tremendously with Chennai Super Kings needing virtually ten an over. As it turned out, it was Dale Steyn, the lynchpin of the Cape Cobras’ attack, who was milked for runs off the penultimate over by a belligerent Bravo that made it easy for the Chennai Super Kings to get the six runs off the last over to register their first win of the Champions League Twenty20 2011 while handing the first loss for the Cape Cobras.