Chennai’s big guns ensure victory

South Africa’s dire run of form at the Champions League T20 continued on Monday as the Dolphins floundered against the Chennai Super Kings’ big hitters, losing by 54 runs in Bangalore.

Chennai posted a whopping 242 for six, in large part thanks to Suresh Raina’s blistering 90. The Dolphins were well out of their depth during the chase, losing regular wickets to find themselves all out for 188.

The Dolphins won the toss and chose to field, which initially looked like a good decision as they got rid of Dwayne Smith in the first over, for seven. But that was pretty much all the luck they had for most of the game.

Brendon McCullum and Raina then set about dismantling the Dolphins’ attack, going at more than 10 to the over for the next 40 minutes. They pushed the score from eight in over one to 99 in over nine.

McCullum departed for 49 off 29 balls, to Khaya Zondo, having struck three sixes. This was little compared to Raina, who sent the ball over the ropes eight times, and added four other boundaries on his way to 90.

He was bagged by Robbie Frylinck in the 15th over, the score on 164, before the paceman also removed MS Dhoni for a first ball duck. Faf du Plessis continued at the other end, adding 30 off 19 balls against his countrymen.

The last push was completed by Ravi Jadeja, who scored 40 not out to ensure an unreachable target, using up just 14 balls and hitting three sixes. As for the bowlers, Frylinck’s two wickets came at the cost of 52 runs.

The chase was doomed from the start as Morne van Wyk fell for 17, and from there the batsmen got decent starts by failed to push past the 30s. Cody Chetty top-scored with 38, while Cameron Delport and Vaughan van Jaarsveld got similar scores.

But the 14th over proved the death knell, as Van Jaarsveld and Daryn Smit were removed, and Zondo was sent packing off the first ball of the next over, reducing the side from 138/4 to 138/7 in the space of five balls.

Mohit Sharma was the pick of the Chennai bowlers, as he had been in the IPL, taking four wickets. This included the final two Dolphins to fall, as they were all out off the last ball of the innings.