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The Chennai Super Kings have plenty to ponder after losing to the Deccan Chargers by seven wickets, their third successive defeat. Their top order failed again and their total of 144 was easily overhauled by Deccan, inspired by a blazing 54 by stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist. Besides struggling to cope with the loss of their big-hitting overseas batsmen, Chennai’s bowling, which has taken only seven wickets in the last three matches, is also a cause for concern.

Full report to follow

20 oversChennai Super Kings 144 for 7 (Raina 32, Morkel 29*, RP Singh 2-12)

Chennai are still struggling top cope with the absence of their big-name overseas players and after a third successive batting failure, they managed to post only 144. After Gilchrist, captaining Deccan in place of the injured VVS Laxman, sent Chennai in, his bowlers turned in an efficient performance to boost their hopes of a much-needed win.

Just as in the previous two matches, the first over saw the batsmen flounder against the moving ball. Parthiv Patel troubles with the bat continued as he survived a close lbw call first ball, dropped by the bowler P Vijaykumar off the fourth, before RP Singh took a fine running catch at fine leg to dismiss him sixth ball. S Anirudh, son of former Indian batsman Kris Srikkanth, fell soon after, miscueing a pull off RP.

Vijaykumar also troubled Stephen Fleming in his second over, angling the ball away from him and inducing an edge but Sanjay Bangar, at wide slip, couldn’t hang on to a difficult chance. Fleming was just about getting into his groove when his rasping square drive off former New Zealand team-mate Scott Styris was smartly held by Rohit Sharma at cover point. And when S Badrinath was spectacularly held at backward point by Herschelle Gibbs in the seventh over, Chennai were at 43 for 4.

Suresh Raina, who was playing fluently when the wickets were tumbling, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, were again called on rebuild the innings. There was some tidy, but not threatening, bowling from Sanjay Bangar, using the slower ball well, and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha as Chennai progressed to 82 without any hiccups. Raina unleashed some lovely straight drives and Dhoni sensibly cut out the risks and kept the ball on the ground and were slowly getting their side back into the game.

However, both Raina and Dhoni were dismissed in the space of nine balls and Chennai were in danger of being bowled out for the second game in succession. Raina again failed to capitalise on his start, spooning a wide full toss from Bangar to Rohit at cover. Dhoni had been tied down by Ojha and perished when an attempted pull took a bottom edge and ballooned off his pads to Shahid Afridi at point.

As in his previous two knocks, Albie Morkel needed to try haul his team out of the hole created by top order’s troubles. The crowd had been chanting “We want sixer, we want sixer” and there had been none till the 17th over when a monstrous hit from Morkel sent the ball out of the stadium. Four more sixes came off the last four overs, including two in the final one by Manpreet Gony as Chennai pushed their score to 145.

Despite the burst of runs towards the end, it was still a below-par score and the explosive Deccan batting will fancy their chances of overhauling it.

Source:Cricket News

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