Chennai save best for the last in CLT20 final

Bangalore — Suresh Raina hit a blistering century pulverising Kolkata Knight Riders into submission as Chennai Super Kings exacted a sweet revenge clinching the Oppo Champions League T20 in style with a eight-wicket victory in a thoroughly one-sided final on Saturday.

Chasing a competitive total of 181, Raina smashed the daylights out of a depleted KKR attack without Sunil Narine, scoring a breathtaking 109 off 62 balls with the help of six fours and eight sixes. His century came off only 59 balls.Fitting enough, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni finished the match with a flourish as he hit successive sixes off Yusuf Pathan as CSK won with nine balls to spare.

This is CSK’s first trophy in three years having last won the IPL and CLT20 in South Africa, back in 2011. CSK lost IPL final to KKR in 2012 and also lost twice in IPL this year. Raina, one of the finest players of the shorter format made a mincemeat of a KKR attack that looked psychologically down with mystery spinner Narine already on his flight back to Port of Spain. Raina is now the only player to score a century in T20 Internationals, IPL and CLT20 tournaments.

As it has been for Raina in a yellow jersey, where he has rarely failed, the UP left-hander gave a perfect exhibition of how to play on a track that offers turn.

Raina’s footwork against spinners was out of the coaching manual as he came to the pitch of the deliveries and effortlessly lifted the spinners like Piyush Chawla (0/38 in 3 overs) and Kuldeep Yadav (0/44 in 4 overs) into the second tier of the Chinnaswamy stadium.

In fact, Raina spoilt the party for young chinaman bowler Kuldeep, who today got a maiden call-up into Indian ODI side.

Thrice, Kuldeep was lofted into the stands as Raina danced down the track and negated the turn, teaching the teenager a lesson about playing top-flight cricket.

He added 118 runs in only 12.2 overs with Brendon McCullum, who scored 39 off 30 balls and 58 off 5.2 overs with Dhoni. Needless to say, Raina was the dominant partner in both the stands.

Earlier, a superb start from Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa at the top of the order and a good final flourish by Yusuf Pathan towards the end helped Kolkata Knight Riders post to a formidable 180 for six. Pawan Negi’s good bowling, finishing with figures of five for 22 restricted KKR somewhat in the latter overs after the frontline bowlers had taken a beating. After a rather sedate CLT20, Gambhir came to form in style and the usually reliable CSK bowlers took quite a beating and the KKR skipper drove and pulled majestically to all parts of the ground to leave MS Dhoni a frustrated figure. Amply supported by the Indian Premier League (IPL) top scorer Robin Uthappa , the top order raced to close to the hundred mark in the first 10 overs. Ravindra Jadeja who pegged the run-rate back with his left-arm spin before Negi surprised the batters with his flight, turn and variations on a pitch that did help the slower bowlers.