Chennai: Suresh Raina blazed his way to an unbeaten 62-ball 109 to power Chennai Super Kings to their second Champions League T20 (CLT20) title here on Saturday at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. With this triumph, CSK halted KKR’s 14-match unbeaten run.
Chasing 181 to win the final, CSK romped home by 8 wickets with 9 balls to spare. Captain M S Dhoni finished the game in style, with a six, reminiscent of the 2011 World Cup final. CSK received a cheque of $2.5 million.
CSK became only the second team in CLT20 history to win two titles. The Dhoni-lead side had won in 2010. Mumbai Indians had won in 2011 and 2013.
On a perfect batting pitch, KKR needed more than 200 to contain the batting power of CSK.Â
Raina blasted 6 fours and 8 huge sixes. The left-hander reached to 100 off 59 balls. He was severe on Kuldeep, hitting him for 3 big sixes. Brendon McCullum scored a 30-ball 39 and Dhoni was unbeaten with 23 off 14.
KKR greatly missed the services of Sunil Narine who didn’t feature in the all-important match after being reported for a suspect bowling action twice in the tournament. Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav, who made India’s ODI team for the first three matches against the West Indies earlier in the day, faced Raina’s wrath as the left-hander came out of the crease on several occasions to dispatch them into the stands.
Earlier, put into bat, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 180 for six. KKR made a good start but finished poorly. Left-arm spinner Pawan Negi was the star with the ball with outstanding figures of 5/22 in 4 overs.
Captain Gautam Gambhir proved his worth as a big match player again, smashing a 52-ball 80 (7×4, 3×6). Gambhir and his partner Robin Uthappa (39, 32 balls, 4×4, 1×6) put on 91 runs for the opening wicket in 10.5 overs. But Negi weaved his magic in the second half of the innings as KKR faltered in their bid to scale 200.