Sport

Tanvir rattles Chennai Super Kings

— Photo: R. V. Moorthy

DREAM SPELL: Royals’ Sohail Tanvir came up with a six-wicket haul against Super Kings.

Jaipur: Victory was never in doubt for Rajasthan Royals in its DLF-IPL Twenty20 clash after left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir rocked the Chennai Super Kings top order with three wickets at the start at the Sawai Man Singh stadium here on Sunday night.

He also showed a safe pair of hands to signal the end of two batsmen before finishing the day’s splendid work by taking three more wickets. His remarkable bowling analysis of 4-0-14-6, to use a cliché, created history.

The Pakistan bowler’s phenomenal six-wicket burst — split in two spells — sent Chennai Super Kings crashing to 109. The Royals batsmen then took charge. Graeme Smith dispatched Makhya Nitini over mid wicket with a short arm pull and slashed another over cover as he put his team firmly on road to its fifth win.

Not to be overshadowed, Swapnil Asnodkar played some bold shots off Manpreet Gony and raised 78 for the first wicket before he fell. Royals’ emphatic win took it to the top of the league position with 10 points.

Earlier, Tanvir inflicted a double blow in the very first over of the match. He first rapped a tentative and nervous Parthiv Patel for a first ball duck. Stephen Fleming met with a similar fate before Sohail finished his opening over.

Super Kings looked clueless with batsmen departing without putting up a trace of a fight. S. Badrinath flattered to deceive, Suresh Raina hung on make 27 and Albie Morkel made a fine 33-ball 42 with four 4s and one six.

The plan hatched by Shane Warne worked though the master tactician may not have actually imagined Tanvir wreaking havoc in his first two overs. He not only was miserly, but also sent back three top batsmen in his first two overs.

Parthiv Patel and Fleming may have reasonable doubts in their mind over the decision awarded by umpire Asad Rauf. But the decisions were marginal for them to blame the umpire squarely.

Vidyut, the third left hander to appear on the scene, found Tanvir’s remarkable line and length bowling over the wicket too hot to handle.

Vidyut fell to a delivery that gained height; he followed the ball and edged to Warne at second slip. Coming back for his second spell, Tanvir bowled round the wicket and wide of the crease and removed, Albie Morkel, Muttaiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini to end up with outstanding figures of 4-0-14-6 with only two boundary shots hit.

Add the two catches he held to dismiss Raina and Joginder Sharma, and Tanvir had a hand in eight dismissals.

Taken off after he shared the new ball with Tanvir, Shane Watson piled on the pressure, again bowling from close to the stumps and hitting the deck short.

Thereafter Warne, subdued M.S. Dhoni and won a personal battle forcing his counterpart nick to Smith at slip.

The scores: Chennai Super Kings: Parthiv lbw b Tanvir 0, S. Fleming lbw b Tanvir 0, S. Vidyut c Warne b Tanvir 5, S. Raina c Tanvir b Munaf 27, S. Badrinath c & b Watson 15, M.S. Dhoni c Smith b Warne 1, A. Morkel b Tanvir 42, Joginder c Tanvir b Munaf 0, M. Gony (not out) 1, M. Muralitharan b Tanvir 0, M. Nitini b Tanvir 11; Extras: (b-4, lb-1, w-2) 7; Total: (in 19 overs) 109.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-11, 4-38, 5-44, 6-88, 7-91, 8-96, 9-96.

Rajasthan Royals bowling: Tanvir 4-0-14-6, Watson 4-0-19-1, Munaf 4-0-16-2, Trivedi 2-0-17-0, Warne 3-0-29-1, Pathan 2-0-9-0.

Rajasthan Royals: G. Smith (not out) 35, S. Asnodkar c Ntini b Vidyut 32, Yusuf c Raina b Muralitharan 8, S. Watson (not out) 14; Extras: (lb-6, nb-1, w-14) 21; Total: (for two wkts, 14.2 overs) 110.

Fall of wickets: 1-78, 2-92.

Chennai Super Kings bowling: Ntini 3-1-17-0, Gony 3-0-25-0, Morkel 1-0-10-0, Muralitharan 4-0-20-1, Raina 1.2-0-10-0, Vidyut 2-0-22-1.

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