Finally, CSK face a challenge in IPL

Too much hype Ravindra Jadeja IPLrsquos newest two million dollar man had a forgettable debut vs Mumbai April 4 vs Mumbai Indians Chennai39s IPLV campaign began on a dreadful note as they were bowled out for just 112 Mumbai Indians made light work of the target with IPL debutant Richard Levi scoring a quick fire half century to help the visitors topple the reigning champions What went wrong Ravindra Jadeja39s first over in CSK39s colours went for 16 Doug Bollinger the pace spearhead was hammered for 34 runs inside four overs Though R Ashwin conceded only 20 runs from his four overs the offspinner failed to extract the turn he usually does from the Chepauk surface These were first signs of things to follow for MS Dhonirsquos men Chaos Suresh Raina was one of four CSK batsmen to get run out April 10 vs Delhi Daredevils Chennai were disappointing with the bat for the second time in three games as Delhi Daredevils restricted them to their secondlowest total in the IPL CSK could manage only 110 for eight from 20 oversu00a0Delhi chased down the 111run target in just 132 overs Again Doug Bollinger and R Ashwin mdash CSKrsquos premier bowlers mdash leaked runs What went wrong Some confused running meant three of the first four Super Kings batsmen ran themselves out Off the first ball of the game Murali Vijay responded too eagerly to a call for a single from Faf du Plessis only to be run out Such chaos continued as Suresh Raina went too far down the pitch in search of a tight single but could not make it back in time S Badrinath was to meet similar fate a couple of overs later End game Yet another failure forced CSK to drop Murali Vijay April 14 vs Pune Warriors Despite scoring a reasonable 155 for five and dismissing Pune Warriors India batsmen Robin Uthappa and Sourav Ganguly cheaply Chennai Super Kings couldn39t prevent another defeat at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadiumu00a0Chennai39s bowlers had no answer to big Kiwi Jesse Ryder who remained unbeaten on 73 to steer Pune past the line with four balls to spare It came down to 34 required off the final three overs in which Ryder only needed to take three singles as Steven Smith39s big hits took care of the rest Chennai39s Sri Lankan recruit Nuwan Kulasekara who replaced outofform Doug Bollinger leaked 38 runs from his fourover spell What went wrong Murali Vijay39s poor run in IPLV continued as the opener departed after contributing just eight runs to the 43run opening stand with Faf du Plessis Vijay who topscored for CSK during last year39s IPL final against Bangalore was dropped after this game and hasnrsquot returned to the XI CSKrsquos batsmen fell to veteran allrounder Azhar Mahmoodrsquos guile April 28 vs Kings XI Punjab Chennaidid well to restrict Punjab from 1272 to 1568 In pursuit of 157 the defending champions were comfortably placed as openers Faf du Plessis and S Badrinath posted a 47run stand However Azhar Mahmood dismissed both quicklyu00a0The double blow slowed down CSK39s scoringrate and added pressure on outofform batsmen Suresh Raina Wriddhiman Saha and MS Dhoni Raina was stumped off Piyush Chawla Saha was castled by David Hussey and Dhoni was run out after scoring just one runu00a0Still Chennai had two powerhitters Dwayne Bravo and Albie Morkel in the middle after 15 overs and the target was 58 runs away certainly not beyond their reach However Chawla Mahmood amp Co bowled and fielded splendidly to conquer Chennai in their own backyard What went wrong Chennai39s persisting middleorder woes ruined them as they lost five wickets for just 38 runs and eventually lost by seven runs Raina took 17 balls to score just 15 runs In previous seasons Raina was always the enforcer while the likes of Badrinath and Dhoni anchored the innings None of that seems to be working for Chennai Chennai couldnrsquot stop Gambhir and Kallis from taking easy singles April 30 vs Knight Riders Even the arrival of Michael Hussey didn39t matter as Kolkata Knight Riders won easily mdash to establish that Chepauk was no longer a fortress for the reigning champions After their bowlers led by Jacques Kallis restricted CSK to 139 the KKR batsmen with Gautam Gambhir leading from the front chased down the score with five wickets to spareu00a0Though the game went in to the last over the Knight Riders were always in control After the game coach Stephen Fleming conceded that though his batsmen played reasonably well on a sluggish surface bowling and fielding was a concern What went wrong Super Kings bowlers didnrsquot help their case with a spate of wides eight of them in all Extras aside KKRrsquos batting pair of Gambhir and Kallis were allowed 32 singles Champions tamed in IPLV gtgt Played 10 gtgt Won 4 gtgt Lost 5 NR 1 Key players fail gtgt MS Dhoni 166 runs from 10 matches HS 40 SR 116 gtgt Suresh Raina 197 runs from 10 matches HS 44 SR 120 gtgt S Badrinath 147 runs from 10 matches HS 57 SR 105 gtgt R Ashwin 5 wickets from 10 matches Ave 43 Econ 645 gtgt Doug Bollinger 8 wickets from 6 matches Ave 20 Econ 9 gtgt Murali Vijay 31 runs from 5 matches HS 11 SR 64u00a0