Indian teams continued with their bad run at the Champions League as Chennai Super Kings suffered their second straight loss in the tournament, this time to Highveld Lions. Of the four IPL teams playing, only Delhi Daredevils have won a game thus far – against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The Highveld Lions produced yet another well-compiled chase, reaching their target of 159 with three balls to spare. A couple of nights ago, they had beaten the star-studded Mumbai Indians, with Quinton de Kock and Neil McKenzie smashing fifties. Tonight, it was Gulam Bodi’s turn to be the hero with the bat.
The temperature at Cape Town was under 20 degrees Celsius. The conditions were chilly and damp again. With Chennai’s spinners struggling to get a grip on the white ball, Bodi revived the innings after a poor start in which they had lost Alvio Petersen (LBW first ball) and de Kock cheaply. Both wickets fell to Doug Bollinger. De Kock had struck a pleasing fifty against Mumbai, but tonight his brilliance was restricted to a delightful flick for four.
Bodi and McKenzie set up the chase beautifully. They added 93 runs in just 10.3 overs with Bodi doing the bulk of the scoring. Bodi, born in Hathuran, a village near the west Indian city of Surat, tore into Chennai’s spinners. His and McKenzie’s wickets didn’t slow down the Lions. Jean Symes and Chris Morris finished off the job, scoring the 20 runs needed off the final two overs.
Left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso has impressed against the IPL teams. Against Mumbai Indians he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar and bowled economically. Today, he set Murali Vijay up with a beautiful straight ball. Vijay, expecting the ball to turn a bit, was so adjacent, he walked to an LBW shout.
Phangiso then beat Ravindra Jadeja in the air, causing him to mistimed a slog to long-on. The Lions spinner bowled out economically again.
Chennai’s stop-start innings gathered some pace in the end with Subramaniam Badrinath’s quick 27 in which he clubbed sixes on either side of midwicket. Skipper Dhoni was with him, making 34 and adding 52 runs with Badrinath to finish off the innings satisfactorily. But despite a strong new ball attack, Chennai failed to defend the score.
