[www.inewsguyana.com] – Dwayne Smith’s failure to continue his usual long lasting flamboyance in the Indian Premier League did not result in a shift in momentum for his Chennai Superkings side.
The tournament favorites Chennai punished former champions, the Kolkata Knight Riders by 34 runs in a rain affected match on Friday, May 02.
Returning to India, the IPL7 came back to rains and more rains, reducing the Ranchi hosted match to just 17 overs per side. Winning the toss, Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni chose to bat first and then came the much expected Smith Show.
The Barbadian utilized its usual flamboyance to get to 16, just absorbing 11 deliveries with two fours and one 6 before he was trapped LBW by Bangladeshi Shakib- Al- Hassan.
Brendon McCullum did not waste time however, filling the void left by Smith, slamming his way to 56 off 40 balls, smashing 5 fours and 2 sixes, While suresh Raina finally found enough form to get his to 31 off 25 balls.
In the end, Dhoni’s band of blistering batsmen made 148 for the loss of 3 wickets, the skipper himself ending unbeaten on 22 off 17 alongside Ravindra Jadeja who scored 17 off 10.
Al Hassan ended with 2 scalps for 25 runs from his four overs while West Indian Andre Russell, who made his debut in the IPL7, took the other.
In their try at the total, the KKR Side never strung together a partnership, with Robin Uthappa playing the lead role on most occasions before he was finally caught by Dhoni off the bowling of Jadeja for 47.
That score, the highest next in the side came off 38 balls with 5 fours and 1 six and represented one of the two double figured ones in the side; Yusuf Pathan’s 41 off 29 with 1 four and 4 sixes being the other.
In the end, the scorecard was riddled with single figures as the side lost 9 wickets by the end of their 17 overs, still some 34 runs short.
Of the 9 wickets to fall, Jadeja picked up three from his maximum amount of overs, for the loss of 12 runs, while Mohit Sharma had 3 wickets from 3 overs which went for 22 runs.
