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Massive win for Chennai Super Kings

IPL/Royal Challengers fizzles out for a paltry 87; Hayden and Muralitharan impress

Matthew Hayden smashed 65 off 35 deliveries
Hayden and Parthiv put on 106 for the first wicket

— Photo: AFP

BIG HITTING: Matthew Hayden, playing at his belligerent best, helped Chennai Super Kings post a daunting total that proved to be out of reach for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday.

Port Elizabeth: Chennai Super Kings comprehensively defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore, by 92 runs, in their Indian Premier League match in St. George’s Park here on Monday.

Chasing Super Kings’ competitive score of 179 for five, Royal Challengers collapsed for 87, with Man-of-the-Match Muttiah Muralitharan bowling splendidly for three wickets for 11 runs in his four overs. Opener Matthew Hayden plundered runs for Chennai, smashing nine fours and two sixes for a 35-ball 65.

Big blow

Muralitharan’s crucial strike was in removing captain Kevin Pietersen for a duck, when Royal Challengers was in trouble at 49 for three. Pietersen was struck in line by a delivery that pitched on off. The captain wasn’t pleased with the decision; Royal Challengers could never recover.

Robin Uthappa, a potential danger, departed to a beautifully created stumping chance. Muralitharan was posing problems with flight and turn, and Bangalore reeled at 50 for five.

Upfront, Pietersen’s surprise decision to send Praveen Kumar as an opener backfired and triggered the slide for Bangalore. M.S. Gony bowled full to breach Praveen’s defence in the first over.

Jacques Kallis looked to be settling in after five well-struck boundaries, before he was beaten by Albie Morkel. Kallis walked across to a full delivery to depart leg-before for 24.

Ross Taylor was the next to go, giving Andrew Flintoff enough time to claim a catch off his own bowling.

There was little resistance from the lower order. Rahul Dravid was allowed just 18 balls, from which he managed 20.

Forced to reduce the damage, Dravid perished when he played at a half-volley from L. Balaji, only for Flintoff to complete the catch at square-leg for the match’s final wicket.

Apart from Muralitharan’s three wickets, Balaji took two while Gony, Flintoff, Morkel and Joginder chipped with one wicket each to throttle the Bangalore batsmen.

Great partnership

Earlier, Chennai Super Kings benefited from a 106-run opening partnership after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni chose to bat under a partial cloud cover.

Hayden and Parthiv Patel got the side off to a cracking start, bringing up the 50 in 4.5 overs. Hayden was severe in his treatment of Kallis in the fifth over, smashing three fours and a six over long-off while scoring 20 runs.

Hayden’s power-hitting brought his 50 up in just 22 deliveries. Left-hander Parthiv Patel offered splendid support in the opening overs against Praveen, who couldn’t manage the swing expected of him.

Hayden began proceedings with a boundary through covers in the first over. Praveen struggled with his length as well, and was struck through mid-wicket for Patel’s first boundary.

Royal Challengers’ bowlers repeatedly bowled too short or offered full-tosses for Hayden to capitalise on in the first 10 overs.

Royal Challengers managed two quick breakthroughs after the strategic timeout. Pietersen brought himself on in the 11th over and struck with his first delivery as Parthiv missed in his attempt to slog-sweep a straight one, and missed.

Suresh Raina took off for a chancy single in the very next delivery. Rahul Dravid’s precise throw from point beat Hayden’s dive.

Raina and Dhoni wasted little time in smashing boundaries off full-tosses.

Raina was given a reprieve by Dale Steyn, who spilled a high chance at deep mid-wicket. Dhoni had no such luck when his outside edge off Praveen was taken by Rajesh Bishnoi at long-off.

Raina, Flintoff and Morkel struck a few blows to ensure a defendable total. Fourteen runs were scored in Chennai’s final over which powered to the highest Twenty20 score here.

The last wicket to fall was Morkel, who was clean bowled by Steyn on the final ball of the innings for 5. Flintoff was unbeaten on 22.

It was a commendable performance by the Chennai side, which bounced back after a 19-run loss to Mumbai Indians in the opening match.

SCOREBOARD

Chennai Super Kings: Parthiv b Pietersen 30, M. Hayden (run out) 65, S. Raina c Kohli b Praveen 28, M.S. Dhoni c Bishnoi b Praveen 16, A. Flintoff (not out) 22, A. Morkel b Steyn 5; Extras (lb-5, w-8) 13. Total (five wickets; 20 overs) 179.

Fall of wickets: 1-106, 2-106, 3- 144, 4-165, 5-179.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Praveen 4-0-37-2, Steyn 4- 0-35-1, J. Kallis 2-0-28-0, Vinay Kumar 1-0-12-0, Kohli 1-0-9-0, Kumble 4-0-26-0, Pietersen 3-0-14-1, Taylor 1-0-13-0.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Praveen b Gony 0, R. Uthappa st Dhoni b Muralitharan 20, J. Kallis lbw b Morkel 24, R. Taylor c & b Flintoff 1, K. Pietersen lbw b Muralitharan 0, R. Dravid c Flintoff b Balaji 20, V. Kohli c Badrinath b Joginder 11, R. Bishnoi c Balaji b Muralitharan 0, Vinay Kumar c Hayden b Balaji 5, D. Steyn (run out) 0, A. Kumble (not out) 1; Extras (lb-1, w-4) 5. Total (in 15.2 overs) 87.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-40, 3-47, 4-49, 5-50, 6-66, 7-66, 8-74, 9-78.

Chennai Super Kings bowling: Gony 3-0-24-1, Balaji 2.2-0-18-2, A. Morkel 2-0-12-1, Flintoff 3-0-11-1, Muralitharan 4-1-11-3, Joginder 1-0-10-1.

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