Warriors wince again
Navi Mumbai: As the teams were packing up after the Chennai Super Kings' second convincing victory over the Pune Warriors India in less than 48 hours, the visitors' dressing room at the Dr DY Patil Sports Stadium was expectedly filled with smiling faces and high-fives.
The Warriors' dressing room resembled a graveyard, with everyone in mourning over the team's fourth consecutive loss. More than the successive losses that have pulled them down from the top-two to bottom-two in just over a week, what's more distressing for the most expensive IPL franchise is the consistency of their inconsistent batting.
In each of the three losses coming into this game, the top order had failed miserably. And it wasn't any different on Wednesday. And by the time Yuvraj Singh had got his eye in, the game was all but over.
If Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel were too good on Monday, with the latter injured, Bollinger wreaked havoc on his own at the Warriors' adopted home.
The Australia left-arm seamer was at his quickest best as he saw the back of openers Jesse Ryder and Mohnish Mishra with two short ones in the space of three balls. From then on, despite Yuvraj's solid knock, the Warriors kept on losing wickets as they put on 141 for six.
All that the Super Kings needed to register their maiden victory away from home was for one of the batsmen to play a sturdy knock. And it came off S Badrinath's willow. In a line-up full of power-hitters, Badrinath's craft is often overshadowed. However, he showed that one doesn't need to hit big sixes to score quickly.
His first boundary, dancing down the track to hit Murali Kartik over his head, was a delight to watch. And the next ball that sailed into the crowd at long-off proved that Badri wasn't averse to hitting the ball in the air. Even though he completed the formalities with an unorthodox flick to the mid-wicket fence with three balls remaining in the match, the defending champions were never in danger of losing.
News Posted: 28 April, 2011
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