IPL 2011 Playoffs : CSK defeat RCB to reach finals

During the course of his brilliantly compiled 50-ball 73 Raina became the only player to cross 400 runs in all the four editions of the IPL.

For all those who craved for close games in the IPL, the last few games promise a few. Yet another game went down to the wire and just when the winner was difficult to choose, Albie Morkel called it curtains for the RCB at least for this game and sealed their place in the finals for the third time in four editions.

After a suss at the pitch which was cued to be low and slow, and the Gayle-factor notwithstanding, Dhoni preferred to chase a target set by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Young M Agarwal got a chance to open the batting with a man who has ruthlessly decimated bowling attacks so far in the tournament. The first few balls were sprayed around the legs but the pair reveled the new ball to perfection at least to Gayle. Bollinger on one end operated with great control by digging it short, denying any width for the batsman to cut loose.

CSK drew first blood as Ashwin caught Gayle in front immediately after Gayle tonked one outside the park. Ashwin, the cool guile customer that he is, preferred to flight it to the Jamaican, who, in the pursuit of a wild slog-sweep was caught in front.

CSK did well to tighten the screws up after Gayle was dismissed. The loss of Gayle left his partner, who was until then a dominant contributer, caught between his natural instinct (which said attack) and the forcefully injected defensive style shots in an attempt to resurrect the innings after the loss of Gayle. Eventually he fell when he failed to pick the slower one from Bravo.

A B de Villiers soon followed the same pattern as that of Gayle, hitting a six over midwicket and then fell in the same over.

The Pommersbach and Kohli built the innings in a typical T20 way hitting the odd balls to the boundary, occasionally clearing them and also running hard between the wickets.

Bollinger drew a leaf out of Zaheer’s playbook as he foxed Pomersbach with a cutter that hit the deck and crept in lazily which left him fishing for a cut when none existed.

Kohli at the other end cut and pulled using his bottom hand and the depth of the crease to full effect. He timed and paced his innings so beautifully. Kept the strike towards the end of the innings intercepted the field with his precise timing but the trademark of his innings was the six he hit clearing the extra-cover boundary. From nowhere the RCB reached 175 (which in itself was a contentious score especially for teams that set it).

Chennai’s hope of chasing the target was for the batsmen to step up as they have done most of the times. To their dismay, they lost Hussey as early as in the first over as Zaheer promptly brought one back in. Soon Vijay departed to an impressive Aravind leaving the Super Kings to experience jitters.

Badrinath was sent in at No.4 like the Super Kings have done every time they have lost early wickets. Now Raina and Badrinath are given with the responsibility of excavating the side from the early damage and also meet the demands of the asking rate in order to erect the team’s edifice up.

Soon the asking rate climbed to eleven demanding something out of blue from the Chennai batsmen. Badrinath soon succumbed to pressure miscuing an inside out to the fielder at deep extra-cover. But he did entertain with he classy inside out and cut shots soothing the nerves to a certain extent.

Chris Gayle was the pick of the bowlers for the RCB in the middle overs. He was determined to even out his bad performance with the bat.

The differential was 57 when there were just eight overs to spare and Raina was the man the Chennai super Kings looked up to and not for no reason. He sent two balls of Abhimanyu Mithun into the stands and thereby shifting the pressure into the opposition.

Zaheer’s last over, apart from the wicket of Dhoni, went for three sixes which changed the game on its head.

The CSK fans celebrate in exuberance as the defending march into their home fortress to play the finals.

IPL has seen many climaxes so far but this has emulated them all. The last over required 12 runs from Chennai for them to win. Vettori, the captain, decides to take up the challenge of bowling the last over.

19.1 the ball was kept full and Raina flicks one to deep mid-wicket for a single.

19.2 yet again he wants to keep it full but misses out only by a fraction but Morkel was too good to put that one to a boundary. (7 runs required off 4 balls)

19.3 gets one into the block hole like a seamer but Morkel manages to sneak two runs with a committed Albie Morkel effecting a dive into the crease even as he lost the bat while running. (5 runs required off 3 balls)

19.4 Vettori lets one slip from his hand and Morkel was too good today to miss out on those. the ball lands into the stands. RCB players break into silence.

Raina, who seemed beset by a cramp, was determined to finish things off. During the course of the innings he became the only player to cross 400 runs in all the four editions of the IPL. His brilliantly compiled 50-ball 73 which included 6-sixes and 4-fours was good enough to fetch him the man of the match award.

The CSK players and fans celebrated in exuberance as the defending march into their home fortress to play the finals.