Wriddhiman Saha's crucial knock of 46 from 33 balls helped Chennai beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala by 11 runs, achieving a 100% win record at home winning 7 out of 7 games and reach top of the table with 18 points from 13 games at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
Chennai won the toss, elected to bat first and got off to a cautious start scoring 5 runs from first two overs. Murali Vijay took the initiative hitting three boundaries, two down the ground and one through fine leg in the third over, but RP Singh got his revenge cleaning him up via a stinging Yorker from wide of the crease.
The next two overs yielded just five runs including a dropped catch of Suresh Raina by Parthiv Patel off the bowling of Sreesanth. Raina then got into the act hitting Sreesanth for 14 runs from three balls. The first delivery of sixth over was clobbered over deep mid wicket for a six, the next delivery for a four over mid on and then again a huge six over long on. A bruised Sreesanth hit back the very next ball getting Raina caught at mid on off a full toss.
Badrinath and Michael Hussey then added 20 runs from three overs before one of the catches of the tournament from RP Singh helped Hodge scalp the big wicket of Badrinath. Saha, who was promoted up the order, then added cautious but lucky 37 runs from six overs with Hussey as both the batsman had a life courtesy poor wicket keeping from Parthiv Patel, missing stumpings of both the batsmen.
Jadeja finally broke the partnership removing Hussey for 32, caught at deep mid wicket via a low full toss. Jadeja then got the big wicket of Dhoni having him caught behind as Parthiv Patel finally managed to hold on to a catch. With the score on 120 for 5 in the 17th over, Albie Morkel and Saha took over, hitting 36 runs from the last 22 deliveries taking the score to 152 from 20 overs. Saha played an important knock and remained not out on 46 from 33 deliveries, while Morkel added 13 from 10 deliveries.
In reply, Kochi got off to a bad start losing their skipper Parthiv Patel in the third over with just elevn runs on the board. Patel was caught at mid on off Ashwin after mistiming a flighted delivery. Brendon McCullum and Gnaneswara Rao then resurrected the innings adding 34 from next four overs before the latter was caught and bowled for 19 by Bravo with the score on 45.
McCullum and Brad Hodge batted cautiously adding just 38 runs from seven overs courtesy some tight bowling from Raina and Bravo. McCullum finally departed trying to up the ante clean bowled by Jakati for 33 from 37 balls. Hodge got a lifeline in the 15th over when he was dropped by Vijay off Raina.
He and Jadeja added 32 runs from four overs with Jadeja being the main aggressor hitting Bollinger for a four and a six in the 18th over before being brilliantly caught at deep square leg by Raina in the same over. With 38 runs needed from 12 balls Owais Shah provided a ray of hope hitting Bravo for consecutive sixes before Hodge finished off the over in style with a boundary over fine leg bringing down the equation to 19 from six balls.
A brilliant final over from Bollinger made sure that Kochi could manage only 7 runs off it including the wicket of Shah (run out) losing the match by 11 runs. Hodge remained not out on 51 from 42 deliveries with three hits to the fence and two over it.
Wriddhiman Saha was named the man of the match for his crucial innings of 46 from 33 balls.
Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 11 runs
Scores: Chennai Super Kings: 152/5
Kochi Tuskers Kerala: 141/5
Man of the Match: Wriddhiman Saha
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