Jadeja was named Man of the Match for his brilliant unbeaten innings of 44
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja hammered an unbeaten 44 and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets to help their side take down the Perth Scorchers by 13 runs in Bangalore.
Perth captain Adam Voges would have been pleased with his decision to bowl first after Chennai lost Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Smith and Mithun Manhas in quick succession.
West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo managed to stabilise the innings with his knock of 27 before he was clean bowled by Ashton Turner.
Jadeja and Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni kept the runs flowing with a 64-run partnership before Dhoni was caught by Turner at long-off off the bowling of Nathan Coulter-Nile for a quickfire 35.
Jadeja went on to score an unbeaten 44, which came off 28 balls and included four boundaries and two sixes, as Chennai finished on 155/6 off their 20 overs.
Coulter-Nile, Turner, Joel Paris, Yasir Arafat and Brad Hogg picked up one wicket apiece.
Chasing 156 to win, Perth found themselves in a similar position that Chennai were in during their innings.
Just like Bravo, Voges played the anchor role after his team’s shoddy start and went on to make 27 runs before he was given out lbw off the bowling of Ashish Nehra.
Turner and Coulter-Nile gave Perth’s innings a much-needed spark as they amassed a 50-run partnership before Turner was run out by Dhoni for 22.
Coulter-Nile ended up being Perth’s top-scorer with 30 runs, which came off 21 balls and included two boundaries and a six, before he was caught by Bravo at long-on off the bowling of Mohit Sharma.
Coulter-Nile was Perth’s top-scorer with 30 runs
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Despite Turner and Coulter-Nile’s efforts, Perth still fell 13 runs short of their target.
Ashwin was the most successful bowler with three wickets, while Nehra snapped up two and Sharma claimed one.
Ashwin finished with figures of 3-20 off his four overs
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Voges was gutted to have lost the match, and said: “In the last three overs of their batting innings, Dhoni and Jadeja took the game away from us. We bowled really well until that point, but they were unbelievable, and we ended up chasing 20-30 more than we should have. Hoggy bowled beautifully, as did the others, but Dhoni did what he does best.”
Dhoni was pleased with his team’s performance, and said: “We made a mistake. Our intent was good, we went with a positive attitude, but we needed to assess the pitch. We went too hard at the ball. After that Manhas and Bravo gave us a crucial partnership. Jadeja’s hitting, the way he went after Hogg who was tough to hit, was very crucial. His innings changed the course of the match. We improved today, but we lacked in the batting. We didn’t adapt to the wicket, and play for what the par score here is. The bowling performance was fantastic.”
Jadeja was named Man of the Match, and said: “I was just being myself when I batted. The wicket was not easy to bat on. We were just thinking one or two overs could change the game. We just backed ourselves. There was dew for the last four-five overs.”