Mahendra Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings most consistent team in IPL
Chennai Super Kings owned by India Cements has been the most consistent team in the IPL till date. The franchise was purchased for US $91 million for a period of ten years. The charismatic Indian captain was highest on the priority list for the Super Kings , and they paid a whopping $ 1.5 million for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. N Srinivasan the secretary of the BCCI is also the owner of the franchise.
Along with MSD , the team boasts of Matthew Hayden, Albie Morkel , Justin Kemp , Makhaya Ntini , Mr Cricket – Michael Hussey , Jacob Oram , George Bailey as some of their foreign players. Not to mention the redoubtable Muttiah Muralitharan. With the likes of Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath to add the desi flavour to the team , the men from the south have always been strong contenders for the championship in each of the IPL events.
In the first edition of the IPL , CSK finished runners up to Rajasthan Royals , after a gripping final. The surprise performer of the first IPL for CSK was Manpreet Gony , hitherto unheard of. With his incisive bowling and sharp looks , Gony soon rose up the popularity charts. The other pacer in the team Lakshmipati Balaji even took a hattrick in the match against Kings XI Punjab. Intelligent use of Suresh Raina by Dhoni meant the bowling attack was a lot better than it looked on paper. The batting too revolved around the precocious talent of Raina , with the likes of Hayden , Morkel and Dhoni making their presence felt every few matches.
The second edition of the IPl saw CSK bringing on board the best allrounder in world cricket – Andrew Flintoff. The move turned out to be a failure as Freddie could not justify the high billing that he had been given , and returned home after a series of poor performances and an injury.
However the selection of Shadab Jakati from Goa and Sudeep Tyagi from UP turned out to be inspirational, and the two thrived in the T20 format , providing that thrust that is required from the local players. Their international starts Hayden and Muralitharan proved to be their most potent weapons, with Haydos winning the Orange cap for the most number of runs in the tournament , while the wily offspinner was the most economical bowler. CSK however lost their semifinals to RCB , a team they had thrashed by 92 runs in a previous encounter.
After starting the latest edition of the IPL slowly , CSK picked up the tempo midway through the league stages , with the fight for the semi-finals spot getting tighter. With Kemp and Dhoni being laid low my injuries for a few matches , and a wafer thin bowling attack , CSK struggled in the first phase of the event. They even lost a match in a Super over against King XI , a match they should have easily won in normal play.
However , the late inclusion of Doug Bollinger gave their campaign the impetus it was lacking. Douggie alongwith R Ashwin formed the most effective and miserly opening bowling combination of the IPL. And most of their victories was built on the start provided by these two.
Having sneaked through to the semifinals on the basis of having a better net runrate , Chennai upped the ante. An in spite of scoring a modest total in the semifinals , beat DC convincingly.
The finals was against a red hot Mumbai Indians team who looked set to lift the trophy. However , yet again Suresh Raina showed why he is rated so highly by producing a counter attacking innings that took them to a challenging score. R Ashwin and Bollinger then got into their suffocating act yet again , and even special performances by Sachin Tendulkar and Kieron Pollard could not stop Mahendra Singh Dhoni from becoming champions.
After guiding his team to the semifinals by beating the team from Punjab an excited Dhoni said "It was an emotional moment. Your franchise pays so much money for you, you should at least make the semi-finals. After that you can say it is a lottery,"
"With the kind of franchise we have got, the kind of team we have, we should have made it to the semi-finals before this game. So it was an emotional moment, at least for me.”
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