Hurricane Hussey blows Mohali away

If it was Brendon McCullum in Bangalore last night for Kolkata Knight Riders, today it was Aussie Mr Cricket Michael Hussey’s moment of glory. He came in when Chennai lost their first wicket at 26 and remained unbeaten for the rest of the innings. He may have faced just 54 balls in his knock, but he smashed the ball for eight boundaries and whacked it over the fence nine times. He reached his century off just 50 balls, and in the end, his 116 not out earned him the Man of the Match award.

Hussey was his usual self, the busy cricketer we all know him to be. Punjab had one of the better pace attacks in the tournament on paper, but even with Brett Lee, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and James Hopes getting good bounce on the PCA Stadium pitch, Hussey was unfazed. The most expensive player of the IPL, MS Dhoni, was a huge letdown, scoring just two, but that became immaterial with what was to come.

In Suresh Raina and S Badrinath, Hussey found two young batsmen who not only rotated the strike ably, but also ensured continuous scoring from the other end. Raina blasted 32, while Badrinath stayed unbeaten on a quick 31. The Chennai Super Kings finally finished their run-amassing at 240/4.

The local team started reasonably okay amidst the dhols beating around the stadium. Hopes, Sangakkara and Yuvraj provided the fireworks and as runs started piling up on the scoreboard, the Punjab team was surely inching towards the big mountain. Unfortunately, it was all too little.

But it was not all gloom in Mohali. Despite the hosts’s loss, the dhols never stopped. The crowd got their money’s worth, enjoyed their cricket and went home hoping for a result-reversal when they troop in next.

Soreboard: Super Kings vs Kings XI

Chennai Super Kings

P Patel c Sangakkara b B Lee 15

M Hayden b I Pathan 25

M Hussey not out 116

M S Dhoni lbw b J Hopes 2

S Raina c Pathan b W Mota 32

J Oram b I Pathan 13

S Badrinath not out 31

Extras: (lb-2 nb-1 w-3) 6

Total (for five wickets; 20 overs) 240

FoW: 1-26, 2-57, 3-62, 4-128, 5-167.

Bowling:

B Lee 4-0-35-1

S Sreesanth 3-0-35-0

J Hopes 4-0-53-1

I Pathan 4-0-46-2

K Goel 2-0-25-0

P Chawla 1-0-19-0

W Mota 2-0-24-1

Kings XI Punjab

K Goel c Patel b Gony 24

J Hopes c J Sharma b Amarnath 71

K Sangakkara c Sharma b Murali 54

Y Singh c Amarnath b J Sharma 23

S Katich not out 21

I Pathan not out 3

Extras: (b-2, lb-4, w-5) 11

Total (for four wickets in 20 overs) 207

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-111, 3-153, 4-190

Bowling:

J Oram 4-0-37-0

M Gony 4-0-42-1

M Muralitharan 4-0-33-1

P Amarnath 4-0-42-1

J Sharma 4-0-47-1