Badri, du Plessis half centuries take Chennai to 164/5
Subramaniam Badrinath and Faf du Plessis struck a half century each as Chennai Super Kings posted a challenging 164 for five in their Indian Premier League match against Pune Warriors here on Thursday.
Badrinath (57) and du Plessis (58) shared IPL five's highest opening stand of 116 runs from 15.3 overs after Chennai were put into bat at the M A Chidambaram Stadium here.
Chennai seemed to have lost the advantage of a strong start before captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 not out) gave the home fans something to cheer with some lusty hits towards the end.
But for the last over which yielded 18 runs, the Chennai score would have been lower as they took just 49 runs from the last five overs with all the wickets at their hands at that time.
For Pune, Marlon Samuels took three for 39 from his four overs while Ashish Nehra claiming two wickets for 23.
The Chennai opening duo scored almost at the same pace, taking 48 balls each in their knocks with du Plessis hitting four fours and two sixes while Badrinath, who was promoted up the order in the absence of Murali Vijay, smashed eight fours in his innings.
After a slow start, Chennai picked up the tempo with Badrinath hitting two fours off Samuels in the fourth over and his fellow opener du Plessis joining in with a six and a four of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Two more fours by Badrinath off Angelo Mathews brought Chennai's fifty in the eighth over and the home side were heading for a big score.
Most of Pune bowlers were going for runs except for Nehra whose first spell of two overs yielded just six runs as Chennai raced to 68 for no loss at the halfway stage.
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