BANGALORE: Suresh Raina bludgeoned Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowlers by the scruff of the neck to script Chennai Super Kings’ brilliant title triumph in the Champions League T20 final at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.

Raina’s pulverising 109 not out off a mere 62 balls, with eight sixes and six fours, made light of a competitive target of 181. The eight-wicket win, with nine balls to spare, also vindicated skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s strategy of playing to his team’s strengths.

Dhoni opted to field first, secure in the knowledge that his envious batting line-up could successfully chase down any target set by KKR. And the manner in which Raina and Brendon McCullum (39 off 30 balls, four fours and one six) put together 118 in just 74 balls for the second wicket proved that the CSK batting line-up was in a league of its own.

The fact that KKR were without trump card Sunil Narine helped and as did the pitch and short boundaries at a stadium packed to capacity.

KKR must have rued their inability to take advantage of the 91-run start provided by openers Robin Uthappa (39 off 32, four fours and one six) and skipper Gautam Gambhir (80 off 52, seven boundaries and three sixes).

On a good pitch they would have been looking forward to a total in excess of 200 but that was not to be as man-of-the-match Pawan Negi (4-022-5) came up with a brilliant display of slow left-arm spin bowling.

Negi’s strategy of taking the pace off the ball worked brilliantly for him. The spinner chose to bowl slower and in the process extracted appreciable purchase from the pitch.

The 19th over, Negi’s last, was particularly rewarding. He snared Pandey with the first delivery and followed it up by getting rid of Ryan ten Doeschate and Suryakumar Yadav, both without opening their account.

Just two runs (one off a wide) came off that penultimate over. Yusuf Pathan

(20 not out off 9) recovered lost ground somewhat by clobbering Ashish Nehra for 19 runs in the final over to ensure that KKR bowlers had a decent target to defend.

But Raina’s pyrotechnics complemented Negi’s heroics and won another title for CSK.

Scoreboard KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS:

R.V. Uthappa st Dhoni b Negi 39 G. Gambhir c McCullum b Jadeja 80 J.H. Kallis c Nehra b Negi 1 M.K. Pandey c McCullum b Negi 32 Yusuf Pathan not out 20 R.N. ten Doeschate st Dhoni b Negi 0 S.A. Yadav c Nehra b Negi 0 A.D. Russell not out 2

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-3, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 180

FALL OF WKTS: 1-91, 2-97, 3-136, 4-159, 5-161, 6-161.

DID NOT BAT: P.J. Cummins, P.P. Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav.

BOWLING: Nehra 4-0-54-0 (1nb); Sharma 3-0-27-0 (1w); Ashwin 3-0-26-0; Negi 4-0-22-5 (1w); Jadeja 4-0-25-1; Bravo 2-0-24-0 (1w).

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS:

D.R. Smith b Cummins 8 B.B. McCullum c ten Doeschate b Pathan 39 S.K. Raina not out 109 M.S. Dhoni not out 23

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-4) 6

TOTAL (for two wkts, 18.3 overs) 185

FALL OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-127.

DID NOT BAT: F. Du Plessis, D.J. Bravo, R.A. Jadeja,

R. Ashwin, P. Negi, M.M. Sharma, A. Nehra.

BOWLING: Cummins 3-0-32-1 (2w); Russell 2-0-14-0; Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-4-0; Chawla 3-0-38-0; S.A. Yadav 3-0- 21-0; Yusuf Pathan 3.3-0-34-1 (2w).

RESULT: Chennai Super Kings won by eight wickets.

UMPIRES: H.D.P.K. Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and R.J. Tucker (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: S. Ravi (India).

MATCH REFEREE: A.J. Pycroft (Zimbabwe).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Pawan Negi.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES: Suresh Raina.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014