Dhoni, Raina star in Chennai Super Kings win over Pune Warriors

PUNE: Suresh Raina underlined his tremendous utility as a T20 batsman, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni showed his amazing shot-making ability in the slog overs, and S Badrinath got out at the perfect time. Dhoni (45, 16 balls, 4x4s, 3x6s) and Raina (63, 50 balls, 5x4s, 1x6) added 61 runs in just 27 balls for the fourth wicket as table-toppers Chennai Super Kings swelled their total from 52-2 in the 10th over to 164-3 against bottom-placed Pune Warriors at the Subrata Roy Sahara stadium on Tuesday night. They, then, defended the total with zeal to win the game by 37 runs as the hosts finished at a disappointing 127 for nine. With this success, Chennai has inched even closer to a playoff berth. One more win, and they can be assured of a slot.  Chennai again displayed supreme confidence and never showed desperation despite a slowish run-rate for the large part of their innings on a tricky wicket. They also kept it simple by winning the toss and batting first. Pune did not help their cause by below-par ground fielding in addition to dropping a difficult catch offered by Raina (Wright at mid-wicket, batsman on 16). The target was not easy for Pune considering the lack of depth and firepower in their batting.  Dhoni played just one 'dot' ball in his essay, finishing with a helicopter-ish six off Ashoke Dinda. He started with a tapped four past fine leg off Luke Wright. His next scoring shot was a six over extra-cover off the same bowler, underlying a mix of timing and robustness. On the other hand, Raina's clipped four off Richardson and a slap single to long-on indicated that he was in the mood. Even luck seemed to be on his side. His hits landed short of boundary fielders. But he made Pune nervous by running well between the wickets. He and Badrinath had a combined 47 singles. Earlier, the hosts opened the bowling with leggie Rahul Sharma. They had decided that Dinda won't bowl in the powerplay overs despite forming a decent partnership with Bhuvneshwar Kumar at this venue earlier. Dinda ended up conceding 41 runs. Source: TOI