Ravindra Jadeja was the costliest buy in the auction preceding the tournament and he displayed the first signs of just why he is so highly rated with a terrific performance. Dwayne Bravo was the other player who left a big impact on the game as Chennai opened their account with a big win over the Chargers on the latter's home turf.
Cameron White opted to field first and his decision seemed to be vindicated by the first over dismissal of Murali Vijay for a duck by Ankit Sharma. However, the joy was only short lived. Faf du Plessis, playing his second game for Chennai, took on the role of an aggressor almost immediately after the wicket. Suresh Raina gave him good company for a short while as they put on 40 in under five overs before perishing to a slog. du Plessis continued continued unperturbed and targetted the straight boundaries. Dale Steyn was miserly in the initial overs and it was in Manpreet Gony's second over that the flood gates opened. du Plessis got going with three boundaries in a row including consecutive sixes. He hit two more before finally being dismissed in the ninth over.
Cameron White opted to field first and his decision seemed to be vindicated by the first over dismissal of Murali Vijay for a duck by Ankit Sharma. However, the joy was only short lived. Faf du Plessis, playing his second game for Chennai, took on the role of an aggressor almost immediately after the wicket. Suresh Raina gave him good company for a short while as they put on 40 in under five overs before perishing to a slog. du Plessis continued continued unperturbed and targetted the straight boundaries. Dale Steyn was miserly in the initial overs and it was in Manpreet Gony's second over that the flood gates opened. du Plessis got going with three boundaries in a row including consecutive sixes. He hit two more before finally being dismissed in the ninth over.
That brought Ravindra Jadeja to the crease. The southpaw had earned a promotion coming ahead of the likes of Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo. The left-right combo of Jadeja and Badrinath worked perfectly for Chennai. In the initial overs of their stand, Jadeja remained sedate. Badri was picked up by Daniel Christian in the 13th over with the score reading 93/3. Jadeja went on the counter attack this time and Sudhindra was to bear the brunt of his attack. Jadeja picked 17 runs off the 14th over but his skipper, Dhoni fell in the very next over to peg Chennai back. Jadeja cut loose once more and raced to 48 before he fell in an unfortunate manner.
He went back a little too deep in the crease while trying to work a Steyn delivery on the onside but ended by clipping the stumps with his back leg. He went back a very disappointed man, just two short of a fifty.
After his dismissal, Deccan would have entertained hopes of keeping Chennai down to around the 165 mark but Dwayne Bravo, with his spirited batting, hit all those out of the park. He scored 36 runs single handedly in the last two overs of the innings to take Chennai to a massive 193.
Shikhar Dhawan and Daniel Harris began the chase in earnest with a brisk 32 run stand before Bollinger accounted for the former. Dhawan too failed to make the start count as he holed out to deep mid wicket.
Parthiv Patel and Cameron White kept the chase going but Parthiv dragged a Jadeja ball onto the stumps and that triggered the start of the end for the Chargers. White holed out to long off immediately after swatting Jakati for a six in the same region.
The lack of depth in the Chargers' batting order became quite apparent soon after as the spinners spun a web around the lower middle order. Jadeja was the wrecker in chief and the left arm spinner picked up the first five wicket haul of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. There was nothing too complicated with his game and preferred to cash in on the recklessness of the Deccan batsmen. It capped off a fantastic game for him that earned Chennai its first win of the tournament.
Deccan have a lot of thinking to do apart from shaking of the rustiness and do it quickly if they are to pose more challenges to the stronger teams.
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