Dial 464626 for success

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After the mayhem, the giant screen flashed: 'Carnage at Chidambaram'. It was, indeed, a slaughter of epic proportions.

How else can one describe 413 runs belted in 40 overs? Chennai Super Kings continued their winning streak against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MAC with a nail-biting five-wicket victory on Thursday.

Chasing a mammoth 206 to win, Super Kings pulled off a coup reaching the target in the final delivery. With two runs needed of the last ball, Ravindra Jadeja edged Vinay Kumar to the third man fence to trigger wild celebrations in the stands.

When all seemed lost for the hosts, Albie Morkel walked in to turn the match on its head with a rapid fire 28. Coming in at the fall MS Dhoni’s wicket, the South African and his partner Dwayne Bravo had an improbable task at hand but all hell broke loose in the penultimate over.

The left-handed Morkel destroyed Virat Kohli where he smashed this amazing sequence: 464626. With 15 required off the final over, Bravo cracked a boundary and a six in the next. Jadeja, who replaced Morkel, held his nerve even as the job was almost done.

For Super Kings, it was always going to be a tall order with 75 needed off the last five overs. But Dhoni (41, 24b, 1x4, 2x6) and opener Fa du Plessis kept their team in the hunt with some lusty hits. Super Kings started the chase in right earnest knocking 62 during power-play.

Plessis was merciless on anything that was pitched short. The South African took Raju Bhatkal to the cleaners with a 20-run salvo in the sixth over. However veteran Muttiah Muralitharan broke the opening stand in the very next over when he sent M. Vijay packing with a superlative return catch.

At the halfway mark, Super Kings required a further 121 to cross the line. Suresh Raina, while looking for quick runs, holed out in the deep to give Murali his second. But the wily old fox wasn't finished yet. He came back to bag the prized wicket of Plessis. The Sri Lankan finished with impressive figures of 4-0-21 3.

Meanwhile, a day after Chennai evaded a possible Tsunami attack; they were confronted by another familiar bout of violence in the form a Gayle torpedo.

The West Indies left-hander battered and bruised Super Kings with a whirlwind 68 (35b, 2x4, 6x6). Gayle was in the zone. One of the sixes, which he hit of Bravo was measured at 103 meters, went out of the stadium. Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli also contributed handsomely but it just wasn't enough on the day.

TURNING POINT: After a belter of a start, RCB were never in a doubt to cross the 200-mark. The only question was how much more they would be able to add after reaching the milestone. However, the last over of their innings turned out to be a disaster. Not only did RCB manage to score just seven runs of the Doug Bollinger-over, they also lost four wickets during the process. For RCB, even half-a-dozen extra runs would have come handy in the final analysis. On the contrary, CSK would be delighted by the way Bollinger completed the bowling quota.

HERO: (Albie Morkel, CSK): LBIE MORKEL CHENNAI SUPER KINGS The strapping all-rounder is not called one of the cleanest strikers of the ball without a rea son, ask Virat Kohli. While ask Virat Kohli. While most batsmen would have given up when the required run rate reaches a sky high 21.5, Morkel demonstrated a monkish approach to the situation. His lofted shot through the arc were easy on the eye as they were on the Chennai scorecard.

ZERO: (Virat Kohli, RCB): His batting pyrotechnics notwithstanding, Kohli would love to forget this fixture in a hurry. Royal Challengers seemed to have lost the plot when they exhausted all their main bowlers, which robbed them of experienced hands delivering at the death.

Kohli, who went for eight off his first, was asked to bowl the penultimate over and gave away 28 runs. He committed the elementary error of feeding Morkel with length deliveries.