On a surface as tired as the whole tournament, Deccan Chargers stifled Chennai Super Kings for the better part of their innings, but the mystery of how Chennai manage so many reprieves and educated edges in their games remained. Michael Hussey enjoyed the mandatory drop, Suresh Raina discovered two pleasantly surprising ones, and Albie Morkel laid into some ordinary death bowling to take Chennai to a total much better than Deccan's initial effort merited.
That is only one side of story, though. For Hussey invariably makes you pay for lapses in fielding. Ask Kamran Akmal and friends. Tonight's lapse summed up Cameron White's low confidence. Hussey was 10 when White should have swallowed a sitter at square leg. That would have given Pragyan Ojha a second wicket in his first over, and would have reduced Chennai to 19 for 2. It wasn't to be.
Hussey had already got off the mark with an edge between keeper and slip. Insult was duly added to both those injuries when he cut Ishant Sharma for four in the next over. The bowling, though, remained tight, slow and accurate. The score of 63 for 1 after 11 overs comprised merely five boundaries. In the 12th, Hussey reverse-swept Amit Mishra for back-to-back boundaries.
A Hussey chance soon went to hand as Harmeet Singh dismissed him with a long hop. However, Harmeet didn't keep his end of the bargain as he reacted late to a mis-hit from Raina, who would have been dismissed for 25 off 22 had Harmeet held on to the low chance at deep square leg.
Ojha again was the unfortunate bowler. Little did he know then that there would be more in the piece.
Before Ojha could create the next chance, though, Raina made Deccan pay with some vengeful slog-sweeping. Harmeet's predictable slower balls on leg stump, and Mishra's turn into his legs didn't help Deccan. The acceleration was acute: Raina scored the second 25 of his fifty in nine balls. Twenty-four off those came in three fours and two sixes.
Ojha created another chance, Ishant dropped duly at sweeper-cover.
Finally, it was a long hop that consumed Raina at deep midwicket. Ishant, however, went on to serve length balls at the death, and Morkel succeeded in losing the ball in the Chennai night on the third attempt. They were all back-to-back sixes over long-on: the first one landed in the stands, the second barely touched the roof, and the third went out of the stadium. That 21-run 19th over meant the total went from fighting to formidable, given the nature of the track and Chennai's spin-heavy attack.
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