Chennai emerge victorious in tight game

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings held their nerves to win by 13 runs against Pune Warriors to whom they had lost five days ago.

Chasing 165, Pune needed 21 off the last over but they could not manage due to some sharp catching and fierce bowling by Chennai and in the end they were restricted to 151 for seven in the allotted 20 overs.

Main contributors for Pune were Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews (27), West Indies’ Marlon Samuels (26), captain Sourav Ganguly (24) and Australia’s Steven Smith (23).

Sri Lankan Nuwan Kularasekara and West Indian Dwayne Bravo took two wickets each for 10 and 28, respectively.

Earlier, openers Faf du Plessis (58) of South Africa and Subramaniam Badrinath (57) provided a solid start of 116 runs in 15.3 overs to Chennai who batted first after being sent in by Pune. This was the first century opening stand of the tournament.

Captain Mahinder Singh Dhoni also blasted a 12-ball 28 with fours and a six.

For Pune, Marlon Samuels of the West Indies captured three wickets and India’s pacer Ashish Nehra claimed two.

The match was shown live by Geo Super, the first sports tv channel of Pakistan.