Chennai home run continues

          Suresh Raina (left) and Michael Hussey

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Ki­ngs’ ability to bounce back fr­om tight situations makes them a special side. This fac­et helped the Dhoni-led side to beat Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets in the IPL at Ch­e­pauk here on Wednesd­ay. Chasing 148 for a win, CSK romped home (149 for 2) in 18.4 overs.

First, CSK did not panic when Shane Watson and Ra­h­­ul Dravid were going  stro­ng. Once Watson got out, Dh­oni with his clever bowli­ng changes restricted Rajast­h­an to a gettable score. Desp­i­te the early dismissal of Mu­­rali Vijay
, the CSK top or­d­er finished the job in style.The left-handed duo of Mike Hussey (79 no; 55b, 8x4, 1x6) and Suresh Raina (61; 51b, 3x4, 1x6)  added 137 for the second wicket in 16.4 overs to help CSK jump to th­ird spot (12 points) with their fourth straight win and their fifth home victory in as ma­ny matches. The duo pla­yed with purpose and understanding. Initially they pref­erred to score through glides and pushes off both side of the wicket and struck the odd boundary. There was a com­p­etition of sorts as to who wo­­uld get to fifty first. The duo was harsh on Nayan Do­s­hi as the spinner was carted all over the park for fours and sixes.A square drive to the fence off Binny ringed in Hussey’s 50 (32b).  A ball later a single brought out Raina’s 50. A mi­shit ended ended Raina’s fi­ne effort. None of the RR bo­wlers co­uld contain Raina and Hu­s­sey. Only Rajasthan skipper Shane Warne at the age of 42 was shown a sembl­a­nce of re­spect by CSK.Earlier, opting to bat in co­nducive conditions, Rajasth­an got off to an excellent start with Watson and Dravid st­r­i­king well. Watson was agg­r­essive from the word go, wh­ile Dravid after a few anxi­ous moments, chose to play in his usual style, as he grew in confidence. Once he did th­at, runs flowed from the me­at of his blade.Watson  relished driving in the covers and long on re­g­i­on. His extra-cover drive off Doug  Bollinger being the pick of the lot. Dravid initi­a­lly played some uppish drives to keep the scoreboard ticking. The Wall showed his cl­a­ss  when he struck Suraj Ra­ndiv for three boundaries (reverse sweep, extra-cover drive, on drive). He moved his feet well and handled all the spinners, R Ashwin, Randiv and Shadab Jakati with ease. Dravid got to his 50 in ju­st 37 balls. As soon as Dravid got his 50, Watson went for an amb­itious shot and Jakati had the Aussie caught and bowled br­illiantly. Immediately, As­hok Menaria threw away his wicket, caught smartly at the deep by Vijay off Ashwin. Fr­om 86 for 1, RR were reduced to 92 for 2. From then on wickets fell at regular intervals. Dravid af­ter making a well-compiled 66 (51b, 10x4) got out while trying to up the run rate. He skied a short ball from Rand­iv and Vijay at deep mid wi­cket made no mistake of the skier. Jakati (2 for 22) was the most successful bowler for CSK.