David Hussey gives Victoria win in Super Over finish
Twenty20 was at its chaotic best - or worst, if you look at some of the shots played - in giving Champions League T20 its first Super Over, one that Victoria Bushrangers won emphatically
Twenty20 was at its chaotic best - or worst, if you look at some of the shots played - in giving Champions League T20 its first Super Over, one that Victoria Bushrangers won emphatically
Superover: Finch and David Hussey walk out, Ashwin to bowl for Chennai. This will be interesting, Finch absolutely hammered Ashwin earlier on before being undone by the spinner's carrom ball.
1st ball 1 run, fired into legstump, Finch backs away bit gets a bottom edge towards short fine leg
2nd ball Six!!!, Hussey gets his front leg out of the way, and hammers a length ball over long-on for six runs
3rd ball 2 runs, Hussey looks to repeat that shot but can only get a couple to long-on this time
4th ball 2 runs, swiped towards deep midwicket this time by Hussey, collected on one bounce and fired in an accurate throw
5th ball Six!!!, full toss from Ashwin, Hussey says thank you very much and clobbers that over long-on for a huge six
6th ball Six!!!!, and again, Hussey makes room and smashes the biggest of his sixes, sails way over the boundary onto the roof beyond midwicket, Chennai has a massive target now, 24 runs. Can they pull it off?
Chennai's batting coming up Dhoni, Vijay and Raina are Chennai's chosen batsmen. Clint McKay and Peter Siddle don't have their caps on. Still not sure who is going to bowl. McKay to bowl. Vijay and Rain to bat first up.
Chennai's Bollinger is hopping mad that he didn't get to bowl the Superover. That doesn't matter now, though. It's McKay to Raina.
1st ball 1 run, full outside off, bottom edge takes the ball to short fine leg for a single, Vijay to face now
Vijay is chewing gum, fine leg and third man are up
2nd ball1 run, slower ball 119kmh, Vijay early into the pull, the ball drops to the leg side, Raina runs through for a single, third umpire is required to rule that Raina has made his ground
3rd ball 2 runs, this game is slipping away from Chennai, it was wrell outside offstump, Raina slugs it towards wide long-off for two
4th ball six!!!, Dropped, Raina bends and gets into position to smack that one to long-on, fielder can only parry it over the rope
5th ball 2 runs, Raina smacks it towards long-off but doesn't connect well enough, only gets two runs and Victoria have won this
6th ball 1 run, Victoria celebrate a hard-fought win, Raina again backed awy to try club that back of length delivery, the ball rolls towards midwicket, McKay bowled a nerveless over and Victoria's campaign is still alive
Okay, that was breathless stuff. Chennai are now left with a tricky final game against the unbeaten Warriors - defeat to them could send Chennai home early.
McKay: "I was a bit nervous when I was told I had to bowl the Superover, but once the captain Hussey did the job with the bat earlier on, I was more settled. One more game to go, hopefully the result goes our way and we make it to the next stage."
Amid the excitement, Rohit Mishra's concern is whether the runs David Hussey smashed in the Superover will be added to his Twenty20 career stats. Honestly, I have no idea but Sid Monga, who is feverishly typing out the match bulletin, says they won't count. He usually knows these things.
It's pouring now in st George's Park. and now to let some disgruntled fans vent. Paul Joseph: "Big tactical error in giving the ball to Ashwin, should have given it to Murali." Jagabandhu Paul: "KKR fans were not happy after Mendis's superover. And Ashwin was a wrong call too."
One more person worrying about intricacies. Rohit Arora asks: "hey wrong question wrong time..WHAT happens if the bowler bowls 2 above waist high full-tosses in the super over??" Someone else will have to complete the over I guess, but I'm not sure and neither is Monga.
Amid the flood of mail questioning Dhoni's captaincy, Prashanth makes a pertinent point: "Chennai are at an advantage compared to Victoria since their group game will be the last played. So they will know their equation clearly, whether they must defeat the Warriors or even a loss would suffice."
Hari from the US says: "Bowling a spinner in the Super Over is high risk/high reward, primarily because of the possibility of giving up a six. The value of sixers is extra magnified in a single over scheme.
A stat like number of sixers given up per over should be an important stat in determining the bowler for the Super Over. Maybe Doug the Rug has a point."
Post-match presentation: It's taking place indoors because of the rain. The Man of the Match is Aaron Finch, slightly puzzling decision that. Finch: "We needed a good start today, especially with their quality spinners in the middle. The rain probably did help, slid onto the ball nicely. It's been good fun so far in South Africa."
Dhoni: "The rain helped them, as it made the ball come on to the bat. Their openers gave them the perfect start. It feels good to take the game close, it was a very good effort by the side. I picked Ashwin because he has the variation, the one which goes away, and he usually bowls for us in the opening stages of the match. Also, our fast bowlers didn't bowl too well today, thats why I chose Ashwin."
Hussey: "Little bit disappointing to get out at that stage, luck we got it to the Superover, good entertainment for the crowd and our campaign stays alive for a while longer." Hussey admits he was "cattle-prodded" into going out for the superover. He says wanted to send Wade and Finch to bat, but says seeing Ashwin with the ball for the Superover was a pleasant surprise.
Shih-Lon from Australia observes: "I thought it was fitting that all the possible drama in the game was rounded off when Maxwell mysteriously made it onto the field for the super over so he could make another misfield."
Sid Monga's bulletin should be up in a few minutes if he has managed to make sense of this match. Click here to see in what shape it is. That's it from us at Cricinfo, on behalf on Nitin Sundar and the scorers, this is Siddarth Ravindran signing out.
BE McGain run out 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Raina runs in and pulls out at the last moment.. this time is Siddle who decides to walk away as the bowler is about to release the ball, now its Raina's turn to pull away at the last moment, this is madness, Umpire has a word with him, Dhoni grins
DP Nannes c Vijay b Raina 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
CJ McKay c & b Raina 10 (6b 0x4 1x6) SR: 166.66
Raina has been given the responsibility of bowling the final over. Sunil Gavaskar states the blindingly obvious. 'singles won't do the job'
The Plays of the day of the Twenty20 between Chennai Super Kings and Victoria in Port Elizabeth
Twenty20 was at its chaotic best - or worst, if you look at some of the shots played - in giving Champions League T20 its first Super Over, one that Victoria Bushrangers won emphatically
Emotions ebbed and flowed with the fortunes of the teams on a dramatic evening where Victoria won the battle of the nerves