We have said in our columns earlier that Dhoni is running his Rising Saturn Period. ( Pongum Sani ). This was proved yesterday when his side lifted the IPL Trophy. He had lifted the World Cup two months back. What a captain ! He has a fascination for silverware and the heavens helped him !
A 58 run triumph over the Bangaloreans and Chennai had retained the Trophy. Chennai put up a glorious total of 205 and followed it up with a superb bowling performance, restricting Bangalore to 147/8.Chennai was off to a great start, with the openers putting up 159 runs for the first wicket. M Vijay blasted 95 runs and Hussey 63, which laid the foundations for a formidable score.
Chasing 206 to win, Bangalore were dealt a great blow, when the wily Ashwin dismissed Gayle for a blob. Dhoni, genius that he is, opened with Ashwin and that move paid off, as Gayle, the wearer of the Orange Cap, was back in the pavilion when the Bangalore innings started ! Gone was the threat before Chennai and Gayle's dismissal was half the battle won.Ashwin induced Gayle to edge, which was promptly taken by Dhoni And then Ashwin clean bowled Agarwal for ten. Kohli showed promise with some great hits and Villiers was out to Jakati and Bangalore were 48/3. Pomersbach was removed by Jakati and Bangalore were in the doldrums. Kohli scored 35 off 32 balls but then Raina got him out lbw and the match was almost over.
Earlier Hussey and Vijay mixed caution with aggression, taking singles and keeping the score board moving, while hitting fours and sixes occasionally. They started solidly initially, but accelerated later. Chennai's 50 came up in 5.1 overs, as Hussey and Vijay went on the rampage. Their 100 was raised in just 10.3 overs and Vijay reached in 50 off just 29 balls ! Fours and sixes flowed off his bat and Hussey was glad to give the strike to Vijay. Hussey reached his fifty in 40 balls, but tried to loft Syed over long on, but only succeeding in holing out to Mithun ! This put the end to the 159 runs partnership in just 14.5 overs.
Chepauk was lit up by two sixes from the Indian captain, but Aravind removed him as well as Vijay, in consecutive balls. Vijay fell short of his hundred by five runs and in his 95 run knock, he had smacked six sixes and four fours.
While Bangalore made some sort of comeback into the game, Bravo hit a six off the the last ball to take the score past the magical 200. And such a giant score proved to be too much for the Bangaloreans !
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