Chennai: It was touted to be a no-match between a well-balanced Chennai Super Kings and a much-underrated Pune Warriors India but it turned out to be the biggest upset of IPL Season so far. Pune stunned Chennai by defeating them with the healthy margin of 24 runs at Chepauk on Monday.
Thanks to some great batting efforts by Steve Smith and Aaron Finch, followed by some brilliant bowling performance from the trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mitchell Marsh and Ashok Dinda, the match turned in Pune’s favour. The upset match in turn has opened the gates for every team to be in contention for the fourth spot.
Chasing a total of 160, CSK started off quite badly as they lost the wicket of S Anirudha in the very first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar got him leg before wicket and later gave heavier blow to CSK in his third over by getting Suresh Raina out for just eight runs.
This brought S Badrinath on the strike. Meanwhile, Murli Vijay kept the score ticking until Abhishek Nayar came into the attack and sent him back to the dug-out. Vijay departed after scoring 24 off 22 balls. Ravindra Jadeja joined Badrinath and the duo started rebuilding the Chennai innings.
But Badrinath got out trying to take on Mitchell Marsh in his second overand soon lost the wicket of Jadeja as he departed after scoring 27 runs off 22 balls.
Dwayne Bravo joined the Dhoni in the middle but he didn’t hold the crease for long and was sent back for just one run. Dhoni and Albie Morkel followed Bravo to the dug-out as they also threw their wickets while taking the aerial route on the bowling of Ashok Dinda in the death overs of the innings.
Mitchell Marsh and Ashok Dinda picked up two wickets each and gave away 35 and 34 runs respectively. But the star of the bowling was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who bowled 15 dot balls and ended up with a figure of 2/12 in his four overs. Smith took three catches near the boundary and was absolutely superb with the way he carried himself throughout the day.
Earlier, Aaron Finch gave Pune a blistering start as he kept scoring back to back boundaries and smacked every bowler till he stayed on the crease. The way he smacked Dirk Nannes and Ravindra Jadeja was a treat to watch. Robin Uthappa also spent some good time on the crease but failed to do much with the bat. Finch departed after scoring 67 off just 45 balls which was studded with 10 fours and two sixes. Uthappa and Ross Taylor followed him to the dug-out as thy lost their wickets in quick successions. Uthappa scored 26 while Taylor contributed just eight runs to the score.
But a mind-boggling cameo of Steve Smith saved them from another disaster, Smith came up with some innovative shots which fetched him three big sixes and three crisp boundaries to end the innings in a much better way for PWI. Smith scored 39 runs off 16 balls. Chris Morris and Dwayne Bravo picked two wickets each but Dirk Nannes and R Ashwin went wicket-less which was the main reason why PWI managed to post a competitive score of 159 on the board.
By ISN