Champions League SRL | CSK vs TKR Evaluation Chart - Darren Bravo’s 62 enough for TKR to ease past CSK
Darren Bravo starred for TKR in their 9-run victory over CSK
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In an encounter of the two brothers, it was the younger one - Darren Bravo, who came up with a match-winning knock of 62 to lead the Trinbago Knight Riders to an emphatic victory. In the bowling department, it was the magic spell from Sekugge Prasanna, who picked up 3-25 to help the visitors.
Match Review
Chennai won the toss on their familiar home ground and opted to bowl first in the crucial encounter against the CPL side. And, they did get off to the best start possible, with the wicket of the dangerous southpaw, Sunil Narine as the score read 6/1 at the end of the second over. However, after that, it was just carnage from Kieron Pollard’s men, who added 37 runs in the next four overs taking the tourists to a total of 43 runs after the powerplay phase. The real fun started afterwards when the host of middle-order batsmen took their skills to the task, adding 85 runs in the next ten before a mega onslaught towards the end. The brilliance from Darren Bravo combined with contributions from Webster led TKR to 171 for the loss of five wickets.
The home side struggled and struggled terribly in the early phase of the innings - losing the pair of Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina relatively early. Ambati Rayudu’s 11-ball 16 runs alongside Shane Watson kept the home side going, with the scoring rate seemingly growing on them. With their skipper MS Dhoni walking off early in the game, the game was far from their reach. Once the Australian walked off, the onus was on the West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to be the aggressor in the innings. Despite the late efforts from Bravo and Jadhav, the home side fell narrowly by a margin of nine runs.
You can check out the scorecard and Match Tracker here.
Turning Point
Until the 19th over of the CSK innings, the game was even or even matched head-to-head, with the power-hitting Kedar Jadhav and Dwayne Bravo still standing strong at the crease. However, once Jadhav walked back to the dressing room, the encounter turned around its head, with Deepak Chahar not providing quite the firepower towards the end that the IPL side needed against their CPL opposition.
Highs and Lows
Darren Bravo’s innings was arguably the highs of the entire game, contrasting to the image that he has set in World cricket. With the reputation of being a Test batsman, the southpaw stung the home side with his batting ability. Starting from the word go, he was quite proactive, be it pulling off the quick single or a double. Towards the latter part of the innings, his strength overcame his nimble touches, scoring four sixes and two boundaries en-route to a 38-ball 62 in the encounter.
While the younger brother takes the honour of being the highs of the game, his elder brother forms part of the lower half. Taking up the responsibility of bowling in the death overs, the Trinidad all-rounder failed miserably, leaking runs towards the death part of the innings. It was Bravo’s twin-over in the 15th and 17th of the innings which turned out to be costly for the Super Kings on the night, where he conceded a total of 27 runs.
Rating Charts
Powerplay exploitation: CSK 6/10 and TKR 6/10
Both innings in the first six were pretty even, with the only difference being that CSK lost two wickets compared to the West Indian side’s one. After the slow start from Pollard’s men, Colin Munro and Lendl Simmons pulled off the improbable, scoring 37 runs in the last four overs of the glorious batting period. Moreso, they just lost the solo wicket of the southpaw, Sunil Narine.
In contrast, CSK failed and succeeded both at the same time as they scored 45 runs. However, there was a catch, just like most times in life, with the home side losing both the dangerous Proteas, Faf du Plessis and the left-handed Suresh Raina. The dismissal of the duo surely let the home side down, as they lacked the firepower in the middle-overs to propel the innings further in any such way.
Middle-overs manoeuvring: CSK 5/10 and TKR 8/10
Trinbago’s start to the innings was brilliantly transitioned to their middle-phase of the innings, where they added free-flowing runs to their scoreboard. The four overs just after the powerplay, they scored a total of 40 runs before adding a 45 towards the end of the 15th over of the innings. And, the architect of both the scoring rate was the younger Bravo, whose innings had everything, starting from minute touches to powerful strokes.
CSK failed terribly yet again and particularly in the recent past, they have done it time and again at home. In what is called a fortress, it is not too much to ask from them to score in the middle phase of the innings. However, given that their skipper, MS Dhoni is going through one of the leanest patches of his career, all he could score yet again was a duck. Funnily, it was his third duck in the campaign, all coming in at a time when CSK needed a heroic figure.
Death bowling: CSK 6/10 and TKR 5/10
MS Dhoni’s bowlers towards the death end of the innings surely gave him a massive heart attack or two. With blind faith on the all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo, Dhoni proceeded to build the entire gameplan around him. However, to his constant fuming, it was the second consecutive attempt where the all-rounder struggled in the death. Not only did he open up the scoring flood-gate but also gave the side from his home country a luxurious position before their bowling. Overall, they conceded 43 runs for just the one wicket in the last phase.
On the other hand, Trinbago allowed the CSK batsmen to milk the most out of them in the last five overs. They did their level best to allow the home side to crawl back into the contest and make the most out of it. However, despite all of that, they picked up the crucial wicket of Kedar Jadhav, which took the batting sting from the home side’s favour. And, in the last two, they excelled, allowing only a combined 14 runs in the two-over phase.
Match Frenzy O Meter - Good
Oh, the game had everything, right from the Test specialist, Darren Bravo pulling off a heist-like innings against the home-dependent CSK side. Latter, it had a near special from both Kedar Jadhav and Dwayne Bravo only for Ali Khan to keep calm as a cucumber, leading the side to another victory.
