We witnessed another last-over thriller which actually has been a norm for them. Chennai Super Kings failed to complete their third consecutive heart-stopping chase tonight against the Kings XI Punjab team at the PCA Stadium, Mohali. Earlier, it was the Gaylestorm that rocked the Chennai team to take Punjab to a total near 200. Once Sam Billings got out, the hopes of this heavy chase diminished for Dhoni’s team.
At one stage the target just looked impossible from Chennai’s perspective as MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja was not able to get the regular boundaries that were the need of the hour. Suddenly both shifted their gears and they started going big in the last three overs.
Death-bowler specialist Andrew Tye conceded 19 runs in the penultimate over to leave only 17 runs for Mohit Sharma to defend. The medium pace bowler managing to bowl consistent wide yorkers proved ou to be the turning point of the match.
When the last over of the match began, Chennai Super Kings needed 17 runs. MS Dhoni was hobbling but he had struck the ball cleanly so far. So much that he reminded of the MS Dhoni of the old. Mohit Sharma was handed the responsibility to defend the total against MS Dhoni and DJ Bravo.
Mohit Sharma began the over with a good yorker. Bravo had one aim in the mind, to give the strike to MS for the remaining ball, which he achieved. The second ball was the perfect wide yorker that just within the limit to be deemed the legitimate delivery. Dhoni could not score off it.
Next ball, Mohit tried the same ball, this went just a bit too wide. Umpire added an extra run to the tally. Dhoni now had the measure of Mohit’s line. He squeezed the next ball through the packed offside field to get a boundary. The crowd got on its feet. CSK needed 11 off three balls.
Mohit Sharma determined to keep his head high, dished out another perfect wide yorker which Dhoni could not connect with. The target now came down to 11 from two balls. Next ball was the replica of what had been bowled so far, Dhoni connected but only a dot ball. The match was over as CSK needed 11 runs from the last ball.
MS Dhoni was not done though. He smashed the last ball for a six which acted as a consolation for the CSK fans. But it was Mohit Sharma’s wonderful last over that lost it for CSK.
