After an unsuccessful gamble by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings will have to wait until Wednesday to know whether they will qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
Chennai were beaten in a “super over” by Australia’s Victoria Bushrangers at St George’s Park on Saturday after both teams scored 162 in 20 overs.
Dhoni entrusted the shoot-out over to off-spinner Ravichandra Ashwin, who conceded 23 runs, 22 of them scored by Victoria captain David Hussey. Chennai could only manage 13 off Victoria medium-pacer Clint McKay.
PHOTO: AFP
It set up a situation where three teams could finish with three wins each in Group A — Chennai, Victoria and South African champions the Eastern Cape Warriors.
Victoria play Wayamba Elevens in Centurion today and will be favorites to beat the Sri Lankans, who have lost both their games so far.
Chennai meet the unbeaten Warriors in Port Elizabeth in the last round-robin match of the tournament on Wednesday in what is shaping up to be a crucial encounter.
The Warriors completed their third successive win in the early match of Saturday’s double-header when they defeated New Zealand’s Central Stags by six wickets.
Chennai were hampered by the absence of injured all-rounder Albie Morkel, which meant Dhoni had to use part-time off-spinner Suresh Raina as his sixth bowler. Raina, though, bowled so well that he had figures of two for 15 after three overs, prompting Dhoni to keep him on for the last over, which started with Victoria needing 12 to win with three wickets remaining.
McKay hit a six, but Raina then took two wickets in two balls. Peter Siddle hit a four and was able to scramble an overthrow, before there was a run-out off the last ball when Bryce McGain could not get the ball away and was run out by half the length of the pitch.
Victoria’s win meant the Warriors could enjoy only a muted celebration of a win in which they had to mount the highest successful run chase of the tournament.
The Stags scored 175 for three in their 20 overs, with captain Jamie How making an unbeaten 88.
Warriors captain Davy Jacobs hammered 74 off 47 balls as he and Ashwell Prince (64) put on 147 for the first wicket. The Port Elizabeth side then lost four quick wickets, before securing the win with five balls to spare.
“We knew somewhere along the line we were going to have a tough game, but we spoke about the need to win from different situations,” Prince said.
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