May 8th, 2009 
Aman 
It was the game that almost everyone watched till last ball. In the DLF Indian Premier League the game between Kings XI Punjab and the Chennai Super Kings was an absolute example of fight. The match was reduced to just 18 overs when it was resumed after rain pour. Mathew Hayden and Suresh Raina stated hitting almost every bowler of the Kings XI Punjab to every corner of the field. Once Raina was out, there came in Mahindra Singh Dhoni who along with Mathew Hayden posed a huge total of 185 runs.
All the spectators thought that it is going to be a one sided match considering the way KXIP played against Rajasthan Royals in their previous game. This time right from the first ball Sunny Sohal showed that they have come to fight and are not going to let this game go that easily. Well he was out on the very next ball. Then came in Simon Katich who took upon himself the task of chasing the mammoth total. He played all kinds of shots and in just 25 balls he made his half century which included three fours and four sixes. It was him who prepared the ground for Yuvraj and Mahela to carry forward the cart.
Now just 103 runs were required of 53 balls with an average of almost more than double. This fourth wicket partnership showed seven fours and three sixes and now it was looking like a secure victory for the Kings XI Punjab. There Yuvraj hit Morkel over the mid wicket for the longest six recorded in the tournament. It was 119m. Now this was clear that Yuvraj is not going to let the CSK go home with an easy victory. The score required now was 44 runs of 24 balls. Of the Chennai Super King bowlers L Balaji and Sundeep Tyagi had two overs each to be bowled.
It was not that Dhoni decided to try his luck and called up Raina. Unorthodox Dhoni repeated what he did in the T20 world cup finals by calling in Joginder Sharma for the final over against Misbah ul Haq. Well Dhoni knew he was not wrong. Any regular bowler already faced by Yuvraj and Mahela would not have done what Raina did. He bowled each of his 12 deliveries in the 15th and 17th overs with a simple plan: not to offer the destructive Kings XI batsmen the length or the width. He kept the ball short of length and was smart enough to not let it bounce high enough for the batsmen to get their willows under the ball and launch it in orbit beyond the boundary.
This was a masterstroke from Dhoni. There might have been billion of thoughts in the mind of Dhoni but he remained calm waiting for the best thought to come in and execute it. This is what he did when Raina bowled. In front of batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayewardene, when team requires runs at the run rate of more than 12 runs per over if you manage to bowl number like 2-0-8-0, it is not difficult to understand what a disciplined bowling was that in the time of crisis which paved way for the Chennai Super Kings. Now they stand at the top of the table with 11 points while Kings XI Punjab is at the Sixth place with 8 points.
For Kings XI Punjab it was their bowling attach which led to this destruction. In just one over of Srisanth Mathew Hayden hit 4 sixes and decided the game for Chennai Super Kings. No bowlers from the Kings XI Punjab could manage to save runs from the Chennai batsmen.
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