The Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh did what he does best – show mercy on the bowlers and hit the ball big. Dhoni displayed another one of his fine cameos to help the Super Kings beat the Perth Scorchers by 13 runs and virtually seal the last-four spot from Group B, along with the Kolkata Knights Riders.
Only the Lahore Lions can stop the Super Kings from reaching the semifinals, if they register a big win over the Scorchers in their last group game. The Mohammad Hafeez-led side, earlier in the day, defeated the Dolphins to remain in contention of reaching the knockout stage of the tournament.
After put into bat in a must win tie at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Super Kings never looked in control and lost wickets on regular intervals but Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni turned their fortunes by stitching a 64-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Dhoni made 16-ball 35, featuring four mighty sixes, and played an instrumental role in powering his team past 150 runs mark. Jadeja, meanwhile, also played well and took on the spinners and scored an unbeaten 28-ball 44.
When Jadeja and Dhoni were batting the Chinnaswamy pitch looked a complete different deck, unlike when the other CSK players were batting. They were hitting the shots at will and did not allow the pressure to get over them to help the former champions comeback from a brink.
The Scorchers dominated the first 14 overs of the match and dismissed dangerous Dwayne Smith (11), Brendon McCullum (11) and Suresh Raina (1) cheaply. Mithun Manhas (18) and Dwayne Bravo (27), however, made a small 23-run partnership in the middle overs but they both failed to convert the starts.
“Last three overs of their batting innings, Dhoni and Jadeja took the game away from us,” Perth skipper Adam Voges said. “We bowled really well until that point, but they were unbelievable, and we ended up chasing 20-30 more than we should have. Hoggy bowled beautifully, as did the others, but Dhoni did what he does best.”
Chasing 155 to win in 20 overs, the Scorchers were never in control of their innings as the Super Kings spinners led by Ravichandran Ashwin made full use of the turning deck. Ashwin was the wrecker-in-chief and took three wickets, while Ashish Nehra took two and Mohit Sharma finished with one wicket.
“We made a mistake,” Dhoni said. “Our intent was good, we went with a positive attitude, but we needed to assess the pitch. We went too hard at the ball. After that Manhas and Bravo gave us a crucial partnership. Jadeja’s hitting, the way he went after Hogg who was tough to hit, was very crucial.”
“His innings changed the course of the match. We improved today, but we lacked in the batting,” he added. “We didn’t adapt to the wicket, and play for what the par score here is. The bowling performance was fantastic.”
