Chennai Super Kings vs. Delhi Daredevils: Match Review

Scorecard

Delhi Daredevils: 189/5
de Villiers 105*, Dilshan 50, Balaji 3-19

Chennai Super Kings: 180/9
Hayden 57, Raina 41, Sangwan 3-28, Vettori 2-29

Chennai lost by 9 runs.

Team Performance

It was a day of clear skies. But it wasn't all so shining for Chennai Super Kings, a bright start to the game notwithstanding. The quick wickets of Gambhir and Sehwag were what was needed. But our team failed to capitalise on this and somehow lost the plot along the way. Our batsmen knew we needed big runs to lay the foundation for the chase. Hayden gave exactly this. However we kept losing wickets continuously, bringing the slide ending in our defeat.

Bowling / Fielding
1st Half
Got off to a good start with Gambhir falling on the opening ball of the match and Sehwag capitulating in the second over. Gave away lots of runs in the subsequent overs against Dilshan and de Villiers. End of 10 overs, DD were at 90/3 with our local guy Dinesh Karthik at crease.

2nd Half
Morkel missed the easy and crucial catch of de Villiers. Didn't have much of an effect on DD's batting. They were simply unstoppable. Balaji was the only bright spot in our gloomy bowling performance.

In short, this was another sloppy performance by us while bowling first. We gave away the first century of IPL.

Batting
1st Half
Got off to the start that was needed on this occasion, with Hayden laying a very strong foundation with a battery of fours and sixes. End of 10 overs, CSK were 106/2 with Dhoni and Raina at crease.

2nd Half
The strategic break didn't help us much. We were running our singles and twos while Dhoni got out cheaply. Raina anchored our batting, scoring runs at a good clip. We seemed to be on the way to win this match. Raina's wicket turned out to be the crucial turning point of our batting. We were done by DD's good bowling towards the end, we were done by our bad bowling towards the end.

Overall, a few positives to be taken away from our batting and a definite improvement needed in our bowling. We seem to be better off in defending a big total than bowling first to contain the opposition.

The batsmen must be commended for keeping up the hopes. All that is needed is a right mindset and consistent performance from our bowlers would help propel us to the knockout stages.

Player Performances

Mathew Hayden [57 runs]: 8/10
Humdinger of a batting. Hayden has always been a star batsman for CSK, and he's just been proving it time and again. Good support at the other end would have taken us to the finishing line.

Parthiv Patel [16 runs]: 4/10
Played second fiddle to Hayden. However, he got out cheaply when trying to accelerate his scoring. Very little contribution to the team's cause today.

Suresh Raina [41 runs]: 7/10
A good performance. Raina's delivered when it was a key time for CSK. With his one/two boundaries every over, CSK was still in the driver's seat for snatching a victory.

Andrew Flintoff [0-50; 16 runs]: 5/10
Poor bowling performance, again. Gave away lots of runs just like in the first match against Mumbai Indians. An outstanding catch to bag the wicket of Dinesh Karthik off Balaji's bowling was the only positive in the first half. Not much of a contribution with the bat also.

MS Dhoni [5 runs]: 3/10
It was definitely a bad day for our captain, failing to bring out the magic both while captaining as well as during his batting. Did it have something to do with his decision to keep wickets? Anyway, a better performance was expected from him.

S Badrinath [7 runs]: 2/10
Poor performance, not much contribution to the cause.

Albie Morkel [1-41; 13* runs]: 4/10
Morkel's first bowling spell didn't go well. He got hit all over the park by Dilshan and de Villiers in the first over. But made up partially by picking up wicket of Dilshan in his second over.
Fielding was also average. Missed the all important catch of de Villiers. A lot was expected from him while batting, but he didn't manage to hit the big fours and sixes when needed the most.

Joginder Sharma [0-8; 4 runs]: 2/10
Average bowling. Got to bowl just one over.

L Balaji [3-19; 0 runs]: 7/10
A stark contrast to the overall poor bowling performance. Got the first ball wicket of Gambhir, though a little lucky. Followed this up with a consistent bowling performance, taking three wickets in all.

Manpreet Gony [1-45; 6 runs]: 5/10
Had a good first over by bagging the wicket of Sehwag. However, he wasn't able to sustain the good performance in the subsequent overs.

Muthiah Muralitharan [0-26; 0* runs]: 4/10
Average performance from the spin wizard.