By BV Swagath
Chennai Super Kings eased to a 37-run win over hosts Pune Warriors tonight at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium. It was a weak batting show from Pune Warriors as they replied with 127 for 9 chasing a target of 164 on a good batting surface.
CSK batting first was off to a dull start with Michael Hussey failing for once and Saha consuming 15 balls for his 13. Suresh Raina started to give the innings some shape and got support from Badrinath who scored a 31-ball 34. CSK moved to 103 for 3 in 15.3 overs before Skipper MS Dhoni walked in to join Raina for a final assault.
Dhoni was wasting no time and scored 45* in just 16 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes. Raina remained unbeaten with 63 from 50 balls with 5 fours and a six. For Pune Warriors, Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 4-1-24-0 and Rahul Sharma with 4-0-27-1 were the pick of the bowlers.
In their run chase, PWI quickly slipped into a losing position. Mohit Sharma once again got amongst the wickets with his ability to seam the ball around. Dangerman Aaron Finch fell in the 3rd over to him followed up by T Suman getting dismissed for a first ball duck. Robin Uthappa was run out as Pune slipped to 29 for 3. Yuvraj Singh flopped again, not moving his feet and edging Mohit to the keeper. When Luke Wright was dismissed through a run out in the 8th over, the game was as good as over at 54 for 5.
Pune ended up with 127 for 9 with Steven Smith top scoring with 35 from 39 balls. Kane Richardson with 26 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 24 did their bit in reducing the margin of defeat. Dhoni got the Man of the Match award ahead of teammate Raina.
Toss and Teams: Chennai Super Kings have won the toss and elected to bat first against hosts Pune Warriors at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.
Pune Warriors: Aaron Finch (C), Robin Uthappa (WK), Yuvraj Singh, Luke Wright, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Tirumalsetti Suman, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kane Richardson
Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, Wriddhiman Saha, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Albie Morkel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Chris Morris, Mohit Mahipal Sharma
