IPL 2012: Jadeja And Bravo Set Up Victory Over Chargers

IPL 2012: Jadeja And Bravo Set Up Victory Over Chargers

Ravindra Jadeja produced a fine all-round performance as Chennai thrashed Deccan in Visakhapatnam

©REUTERS / Action Images

Chennai Super Kings 193-6 (Jadeja 48) beat
Deccan Chargers 119 (Jadeja 5-16) by 74 runs
Indian Premier League, Visakhapatnam
Scorecard

Bouncing back from their defeat in the opening game, Chennai Super Kings beat Deccan Chargers by 74 runs at Visakhapatnam in game six of the Indian Premier League 2012.

It is now a win and a loss from their two matches for the defending champions as the Chargers made an inauspicious start to their season.

The hosts won the toss and captain Cameron White elected to bowl first, keeping the dew factor in mind, but Chennai were in no mood to let external factors have a say as they went about putting up a high score on the board.

Francois du Plessis gave them a more than rousing start, hitting four huge sixes and there was only one four in his 24-ball 35-run innings. His opening partner Murali Vijay failed again before Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath tried to get things going.

Raina was out for 16 in the sixth over, while du Plessis fell in the ninth. The score at that time read 63 for three and when Badrinath was out for 25 in the 13th over, Chennai’s innings seemed to be losing impetus.

Two overs later skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was out for only seven runs and their innings had lost all direction. That was when Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo came together.

Their partnership for the sixth wicket got things going again. Jadeja made 48 off 29 balls with three fours and three sixes to start the fightback, and Bravo then smashed the Chargers’ bowling all over, racking up 48 runs off only 18 balls. He hit no fours, only five sixes to rocket the score past 180.

The Chennai innings eventually ended at 193 for six in 20 overs. Dale Steyn, with two for 25 from his four overs, was the best bowler for Deccan.

They needed a great start to maintain any hopes of overhauling this big score. Their top four batsmen all got starts, but failed to convert them into anything substantial.

White made 23 and that was the innings high score, telling their disappointing story. Shikhar Dhawan scored 21 and Parthiv Patel made 20, but once they were out, the Chennai slow bowlers came on to strangle the match out of their grasp.

Jadeja, who endured a torrid first game for his new franchise against the Mumbai Indians, brought out the goods that are worth $US2 million. After his batting performance, he rounded the evening off with a match-winning haul of five for 16 in just four overs, routing the Deccan Chargers completely.

They were bowled out for 119 in the 17.1 overs and it appears to be a long, hard road ahead for the Hyderabad based outfit.

© Cricket World 2012