Raina sees Super Kings through to Mumbai by CricketArchive

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Scorecard:	Deccan Chargers v Chennai Super Kings
Player:	L Balaji, MS Dhoni, PA Patel, DB Ravi Teja, Y Venugopal Rao, AC Gilchrist, SK Raina
Event:	Indian Premier League 2007/08

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DateLine: 28th May 2008

 

In what was supposed to be a match that may have decided the 4th and the final semi-final berth, Chennai Super Kings sealed it with a convincing enough, seven wickets victory over the Deccan Chargers at Uppal.

 

Adam Gilchrist won the toss and decided to bat first, and was in for a very poor start. Chargers lost both their openers, the skipper, and Herschelle Gibbs quite early, and after that it was only playing catch-up for the Chargers. Styris scored a twenty, but it was the Venugopal Rao-Ravi Teja partnership that scored 76 runs and in turn bringing Chargers back into the game with some respectable total. Rao scored 46, thus continuing with his good run of form, where as Teja got a 40. The Chargers managed to score 35 runs in the last three overs, and that may have been even more had the Super Kings not got a hat-trick; Morkel took two out of the three wickets that fell off consecutive deliveries, where as Rao was run out. Albie Morkel and Balaji were the most successful bowlers for the Super Kings, but it was Ntini and Manpreet Gony that set the ball rolling, with very tight bowling.

 

In reply, Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming got the Chargers off to a decent start, and then Suresh Raina took it over from there, first adding 34 with Patel, and then 55 with skipper Dhoni. Dhoni, in fact, looked in supreme touch, and had come with an intention to not allow the bowlers to settle down and took on Pragyan Ojha. In the end, Ojha did have his revenge, getting him caught at the boundary, but a cool headed Raina duly completed his fifty and sealed his team’s win.

 

With this win, the Chargers ended their engagements with no wins in their seven home matches, and only two wins in all, where Chennai Super Kings would now face the Kings XI Punjab in the semi-finals. The other semi-final would be between the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi DareDevils.