IPL 5 - Chennai Super Kings – Season Review
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) went through a lot of highs and lows in the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but they still managed to qualify for the final of the tournament, even though the defending champions failed to lift the title for the
third time in a row.
Over the period of five years, CSK is without doubt the best IPL franchise and has outclassed all the teams in the event. With two title wins and having reached four finals, no other team comes close to competing with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 and company.
However, the men in yellow were off-colour for most part of the tournament and hardly made it to the last four of the tournament with 17 points after 16 matches. The franchise had to rely on other results to qualify for the play-offs this year.
Batting has been Chennai’s real strength over the years and the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Subramaniam-Badrinath-c91587 and Dhoni have been the pillars of success for the Super Kings. The same was not the case this season, at least in the league matches, as CSK failed
to post big totals on the board regularly.
Most of the batsmen looked in good form throughout the event but miserably failed to convert their starts into big knocks. Dhoni is considered as someone who does not believe in rapid changes in the playing XI, but even he had to drop http://www.senore.com/Cricket/M-Vijay-c1867 and Badrinath
for some fixtures, in order to try a new combination.
However, the batsmen made up for their performances in the play-offs and played out of their skins. Vijay played the innings of his life against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 Daredevils when he scored a match-winning hundred. Even in the final, CSK posted a massive total of 190
runs on the board, but unfortunately, their bowlers had an off-day, which cost them the trophy.
Chennai’s coach and former Kiwi skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stephen-Paul-Fleming-c91190 is not entirely satisfied with his side’s showings in the fifth season and wants his boys to be more consistent and reliable in the next edition of the cash-rich league.
Fleming expressed, "When you get beaten like that, it's a lot easier to take than when you've played below par. A little disappointed that our campaign has been termed as 'lucky', we still got the points to qualify for the semis. The challenge next year
is to be one of the most consistent sides."
While talking about the poor performance of his bowlers in the final, Fleming confessed that Kolkata Knight Riders’ Manvinder Bisla played brilliantly to take the game away from the defending champions. Fleming feels that his bowlers were not considering
Bisla to be such a threat.
“Bisla, I thought, was outstanding, they needed someone to stand up. We got a great early wicket of [Gautam] Gambhir, which we had targeted, but we didn't expect the onslaught from Bisla, maybe a quick 30, 40 would have been fine, but he took it quite deep."
The biggest positive in season five for Chennai was the performance of their all-rounders, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JA-Morkel-c1613 who proved to be the team’s strength once again.
Dhoni’s men are the runner-ups of the fifth season but their overall performance could have been much better, taking into account the depth in their batting and bowling. One thing is for sure that CSK will prepare for the next season with a bigger hunger
for victory, in order to regain their lost title.
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