Narine took three wickets for Trinidad & Tobago and won the game for them. For Chennai, this was an abysmal performance, one which they should try to forget !
They couldnt chase a modest 124 and were just 111/6, at the end of the allotted 20 overs.
Hussey was crestfallen after the loss "It wasn't a difficult target. We had our plans ready. We wanted to get off to a good start, keep wickets intact and then attack in the last few overs. But unfortunately, we lost three quick wickets. Ideally, one of the top three or four should have played a majority of the innings."
A shoddy performance had done Chennai in. "Ours is a flexible order but we lost quick wickets. We needed someone to stabilise the innings, and that's the reason we sent (Wriddhiman) Saha up the order. Both Saha and S Badrinath have done the job for us previously. But unfortunately, it didn't work today." said the dejected Hussey.
Off spinner Sunil Narine came as Nemesis and took three vital wickets, to put Chennai on the back foot. He took three for eight in his allotted four overs.
"We couldn't read which way he (Narine) was spinning the ball because we haven't played him before. Sometimes, it's tough to play someone we haven't faced. There was a bit of Ajantha Mendis sort of mystery with him, but the more we play him we will get used to him, as it happened with Mendis. I thought their spinners bowled wonderfully and the slowness of the track aided them," said Mr Cricket.
Mr Cricket felt that Chennai should have opened with Ashwin and not with the two medium pacers. "There was a bit of variable bounce on the track, so we thought it's better to use fast bowlers up front. A lot of balls kept low and medium pacers could have better utilised it."
Hussey hoped that the relaid Chepauk pitch will play better in the future.
"After the IPL, they dug it up and re-laid it, and most pitches will take time to be din. So we have to give some more time for the groundsmen to work on it. The crowd will obviously be quite disappointed, but come next IPL, I'm sure there will be plenty of runs on this wicket. But as a player, we should be able adapt to all kinds of pitches." he averred.
Earlier, T & T's innings was redeemed by a 28 off 10 from their bowler Kevon Cooper. Barath ( 23 ) and Perkins ( 34 ) also batted well.
For Chennai, Dwayne Bravo's 32 was the only redeeming feature. Most of the reputed batsmen fell, unable to read Narine's off breaks.
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