Tuesday, April 21, 2009

IPL-2: CSK vs B'lore Royal Challengers

The super kings are back on track and how! It was a thorough demolition of the RC's. RC's had just beaten the Rajasthan Royals team and all the experts were raving about how good they looked. However, Chennai put them to the sword and they were shred to pieces. K..k... I know I'm a little carried away. Well cricket does that to me. Sorry!
Hayden was in devastating form. If he hadn't been run out I'm sure CSK would have put a total in excess of 200. There were also valuable contri's from Parthiv, Raina and Flintoff. Dhoni got his batting order right. He didn't do as well as he would have liked with the bat. But he's just wasted lower down the order. I'm sure on another day he will shine.
What really really impressed me about the Super Kings was the bowling. Gony and Balaji appear a little weak. But there was just fantastic support from Morkel, Flintoff and Murali. Man of the Match- Murali was just phenomenal. I don't think I'll forget the way he dragged Robin Uthappa out of his crease with the doosra(Dhoni completed the stumping) for a long long time. Right now this Chennai team is looking really really good. If the opening bowlers can get their act together then there's just no stopping this team.
B'lore looked flat. For a little while after the mid-innings break when Chennai were batting they looked a little upbeat. Two wickets had fallen in quick succession and they had successfully brought down the run rate. The target of 179 was still going to challenge B'lore. The RC team was unable to build any momentum while batting. They lost far too many wickets and were not able to build any substantial partnerships.
I feel Pietersen is making the same mistake that Dhoni made. He's coming too far down the order. He needs to come up and get and face as many balls as he can. He would be the ideal No3 for B'lore. There is still however a shortage of genuine strikers in the RC team. That's something for the team mgt to work on.
All Chennai fans will be mighty pleased with the team's performance last night. I hope Dhoni and the Rascalas carry on the good work.

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