CLT20: Raina, Hussey lead Chennai to easy win

Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 4 wickets Toss: CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and promptly elected to field first. The decision was influenced by the ‘dew’ factor. Teams TTN XI: H Davids, J Rudolph, H Kuhn, R van der Merwe, AB de Villiers, F Behardien, D Wiese, M Mosehle, M Morkel, M de Lange, R Richards CSK XI: M Hussey, M Vijay, S Raina, S Badrinath, DJ Bravo, MS Dhoni, R Jadeja, A Morkel, J Holder, R Ashwin, M Sharma Titans innings [caption id=“attachment_1126783” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Raina gave CSK the all-important early push. BCCI[/caption] Titans made the highest score of the Champions League so far thanks to a classic AB de Villiers innings of 77 off 36 balls. It included three fours and seven sixes and when he was in the middle, the CSK bowlers have no answer to his dazzling strokeplay. His innings was setup by the openers, Henry Davids (52) and Jacques Rudolph (21) and then it was simply a one-man show. The CSK bowlers struggled – Ravindra Jadeja was singled out for some rough treatment, getting hammered for 49 runs in 3 overs. Chennai Super Kings innings CSK knew that if they wanted to win then they had to go for it from the start. They lost Murali Vijay in the first over itself and then there was a delay due to one of the light towers malfunctioning. But then Suresh Raina found a way to light up the ground with some splendid hitting of his own. He even took on the short ball to good effect during the course of the innings – 47 off 28 balls. Michael Hussey, at the other end, took a while to get going but then joined the madness with 47 off 26 balls. The duo put on 89 runs in 7.2 overs at a RR of 12.13 and after that CSK just needed to do the right things. They did exactly that. There was no panic, just good sensible cricket. Quote: MS Dhoni: What really pleased me most was when Huss and Raina got out and come back into the dressing room, the were really upset and that really says a lot. It was a difficult target to chase, but Raina and Hussey batted really well. I was a little worried initially after we’d given away so many runs, but we’ll have to tighten up.