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Raina gives CSK CLT20 victory

Cape Town - Suresh Raina scored an unbeaten century and Pawan Negi claimed five wickets as the Chennai Super Kings demolished the Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets and nine balls to spare to win their second Champions League T20 title at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangaluru on Saturday.

Raina smashed 109 not out as the Super Kings ended on 185/2 in 18.3 overs after winning the toss and bowling first. The Knight Riders posted 180 for six in their 20 overs with Gautam Gambhir scoring 80 off 52 balls which included seven boundaries and three sixes.

Kolkata had been on course for a total in excess of 200 runs but then the slow left-arm bowling of Negi curtailed the Knight Riders’ innings as he claimed five wickets for 22 runs in his fours overs. The defining moment came in Negi’s final over when he claimed three wickets for just two runs. Negi first had Manish Pandey (32) caught by Brendon McCullum at long-on off the first ball and then had Ryan ten Doeschate (nought) stumped off a leg-side wide by MS Dhoni. Two balls later Negi picked up his five-for when Suryakumar Yadav (nought) tried a reverse sweep but only managed to find Ashish Nehra at short third man.

The Knight Riders produced a decent platform with a first-wicket partnership of 91 off 66 balls between Gambhir and Robin Uthappa (40). Uthappa then danced down the track to Negi and missed a turning ball and was stumped by Dhoni.

The wheels started to fall off for Kolkata despite a 39-run stand for the third wicket between Gambhir and Pandey but once Gambhir departed, caught at mid-off by McCullum diving forward of Ravindra Jadeja (4-0-25-1). Pandey smashed two fours and two sixes in 19 balls as he and Yusuf Pathan added 23 off 12 balls for the fourth wicket. Pathan continued once Pandey departed, hitting two fours and one maximum from just nine balls to end unbeaten on 20 as Nehra (4-0-54-0) took the brunt of the assault.

Dwayne Smith (eight) struck two boundaries in the opening over of the chase before being flummoxed by a slow-ball Yorker from Pat Cummins (3-0-32-1). But then Raina and McCullum (39) set about taking the game away from the Knight Riders with a stand of 118 off 74 balls for the second wicket. Despite Pathan (3.3-0-34-1) having McCullum caught by Ten Doeschate on the mid-wicket boundary, Dhoni and Raina proceeded to clobber 58 unbeaten runs off only 35 balls to win the game for the men in yellow.

Raina was in sublime form, dancing down the track at will and connecting cleanly to smash eight maximums in his innings. The left-handed batsman also displayed perfect timing and placement by stroking six boundaries in his innings of 62 balls.

Raina brought up his 50 off only 27 balls and then slowed a bit by bringing up his century off 59 deliveries. Dhoni took a few balls to get used to the pace of the pitch but then smashed one boundary and two sixes, the second of which brought an end to the contest.

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