West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo failed with the bat but picked up two wickets as his Chennai Super Kings brandished their batting might, to beat Dolphins by 54 runs in the Champions League Twenty20 yesterday.
Asked to bat first at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Super Kings rattled up an imposing 242 for six off their 20 overs, with Suresh Raina top-scoring with an imperious 90 off 43 balls.
He smashed four fours and eight sixes and posted 91 for the second wicket with opener Brendon McCullum who hit 49, before adding a further 65 for the third wicket with Faf du Plessis who scored 30.
Unburdened by a target hanging over them, the Super Kings innings motored along at top speed. After Dwayne Smith fell early to the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj, Raina and McCullum set about dismantling the Dolphins attack, matching each other almost stroke for stroke during a relentless 91-run stand that came off 45 balls.
The Dolphin pacers, including Kyle Abbott, had few answers to the fearsome shots McCullum unleashed either side of the wicket, harking back in some ways to the whirlwind century he played during the first game of the Indian Premier League.
The pair led Super Kings to the second-best Powerplay score of the season, smashing 70 in the first six overs. The scoring rate barely suffered a hiccup when McCullum was out—caught at deep midwicket off a mis-timed shot—as Raina took over the lead role. He marched to a fifty off 27 balls and in a third-wicket partnership of 65 with du Plessis, contributed 53 runs.
The gaps between the landmarks showed how effectively Super Kings had negated the Dolphins attack as the side progressed to 50 to 100 and 150 in 25, 28 and 26 balls, respectively. Sixty-four of
Raina’s 90 runs came in boundaries and by the time his top edge settled in Delport’s hands at point, Raina had become the first Indian batsman to move past 5000 runs in T20s and was one short of 200 sixes in the format. Ravindra Jadeja weighed in with an unbeaten 40 from just 14 balls at the end.
Bravo, however, managed just 11, before holing out to long on off seamer Kyle Abbott.
In reply, Dolphins were dismissed for 188 off their 20 overs, with Cody Chetty top-scoring with 38 from 28 balls Vaughn van Jaarsveld getting 30.
Bravo struck the key blows, removing both Chetty and van Jaarsveld in successive overs, to leave Dolphins crippled at 138 for five in the 14th over.