Raina takes Super Kings to Champions League final
A brutal knock, full of aggressive strokes from Suresh Raina helps Chennai Super Kings the reigning Indian Premier League Champions into the final of the Champions League cricket tournament taking place in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757.
The Super Kings batted first in an action packed semi-final against fellow Indians Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The match was reduced to 17-overs after a rain interruption, once it got going the CSK openers strode out with an aim of posting a big total for their opponents.
It did not start as planned for them and in the fourth over of the innings they lost one of their mainstays Mike Hussey, who was brilliantly caught by a diving http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Praveen-Kumar-c82600.
In the process Steyn fell heavily on his back and had to be helped off the ground, his injury was a big blow to Bangalore and made the difference eventually.
The next seven overs were all about the Super Kings, as Vijay joined hands with Raina to launch an astonishing attack on their opponents.
The two Indian internationals tore Bangalore’s bowling to shreds with scintillating stroke play adding 81 runs in their partnership.
Both Vijay and Raina cleared the boundary a number of times during their association, which was broken in the 12th over of the innings with the score in three figures.
Vijay was the one to go when he was snapped by Kohli off Kumar, he scored 41-runs in a knock that included 4 fours and one six and came off 32 balls.
The captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 provided good support to Raina the two added 33 runs in no time at all.
In the 14th over the Indian captain was bowled by Du Preez for 11 runs with 2 fours in his innings.
The star for the South Indians was Raina, who struck as many as 6 sixes and 5 fours, in his 94 run knock that came at almost two runs a ball as he faced 48 in all.
He helped his team reach a commanding total of 174/4 at a rate of 10.2 runs per over.
For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kumar claimed two wickets while Du Preez and Cameron White captured a scalp each.
In reply the Bangalore team got off to an abysmal start as the cream of their batting Dravid, Ross Taylor and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Robin-Uthappa-c2356 perished with the score at a mere 12 runs.
Dravid was the first one to go as he failed to score and was sent packing by Australian left arm quickie, Doug Bollinger.
Uthappa was dismissed for 4 runs by Morkel, while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 was sent packing by Bollinger, who bowled an inspired spell at the top of the innings of sustained pace and hostility under the lights.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 and Pandey then attempted to revive their team but the steep asking rate meant that they had to attack from the outset and after adding 20 in their partnership Kohli fell.
Australian big hitter, White was the last real hope for Bangalore yet he failed to deliver falling for 13 runs to Sri Lankan spin king Muralitharan.
Du Preez also fell cheaply and the game ended as a contest when Pandey’s 52 run knock came to an end. He was Bollinger’s third victim and the pacer finished with 3/27 in 3 overs.
Bangalore’s challenge subsided with the total on 123 in the last over of the innings.
The man of the match award was never really a contest after Raina’s blitzkrieg.
Super Kings now await the winners of the second semi final that is set to take place between Warriors and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Australia-c844 today.
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