Chennai Super Kings beat RCB by 58 runs to retain IPL trophy

SCORE
CSK: 205-5 in 20 overs
RCB: 147-8 in 20 overs.

Man of the Match : Murali Vijay (95 runs in 52 balls)

Man of the series : Cris Gayle (608 runs from 12 innings)

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crushed the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by a huge margin of 58 runs and won the Indian Premier League (IPL) Edition 4. CSK defended their title successfully by winning the IPL for the second time consecutively.

CSK, after winning the toss, opted to bat first and started their innings with their openers, the left-handed Australian batsman, Michael Hussey, and, the Indian batsman, Murali Vijay. They provided CSK a dream opening partnership of 159 runs in just 14.5 overs.

Hussey contributed 63 blistering runs off just 45 balls, while, M Vijay, scored 95 thundering runs off just 52 balls. They both played a breath taking and stunning innings of a life time.

Mike Hussey smashed three exclusive boundaries and the same number of sixes to crush the Bangalore bowlers. Similarly, M Vijay whacked four spectacular boundaries and six sky scrapers, which stunned the opposition, and, equally amused the supporters of CSK.

Hussey was the first batsman dismissed but the damage had already been done by the stunning left-handed batsman from Australia. He was caught by A Mithun off the bowling of Syed Mohammad.

Hussey was followed by skipper, MS Dhoni, to come into bat with a stage set to bang on to the opposition. Dhoni joined the party with M Vijay and could not stay behind his openers and straight away banged on the opponent’s bowlers.

M Vijay was the second man to go back into the hut after crushing the RCB’s bowlers. He was caught by Daniel Vettori off the bowling of S Aravind.

Dhoni was soon caught by Virat Kohli off the bowling of S Aravind. He scored a blistering 22 runs off just 13 balls and smashed two huge sixes.

There were single figure contributions from the following batsmen, out of which, Suresh Raina and DJ Bravo hit a six each and pushed their total to 205 runs for the loss of five wickets in their allotted quota of 20 overs.

RCB in pursuit of a gigantic target of 206 runs started their innings but lost a couple of early wickets on just 16 runs, which demoralised them severely and they soon came under immense pressure.

However, Virat Kohli (35) out and SS Tiwari (42) not out, did their best to reach the target but none of the other batsmen could bear the pressure exerted by the mountainous target as well as the opponent’s bowlers.

So RCB could only manage to score 147 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs and lost the IPL final by a huge margin of 58 runs.