Suresh Raina and CSK leave Dolphins at sixes and sevens

The Dolphins began brightly, scoring 50 in 15 balls before wickets at regular intervals and an inspired spell from Dwayne Bravo – four overs for 17 runs – took the wind out of their sails. The South African franchise eventually fell short by 54 runs, but not before giving CSK and MS Dhoni a minor scare.

But for the first hour and a half, it was the Raina show. Having come to bat in the first over after CSK lost Dwayne Smith cheaply, Raina began in aggressive fashion. He carved the second ball he faced past fine-leg for a boundary and then hit Robbie Frylinck over the cover fence for the first of his eight sixes. After that, there was no stopping the 27-year-old.

None of his sixes were mistimed or came off top-edges. Each of the hits came right out of the middle of his willow with the ball making frequent trips to all parts of the Chinnaswamy.

Such was the ferocity of Raina’s assault that CSK motored to 100 in just 52 balls. He stitched a destructive 91-run partnership off 45 balls with Brendon McCullum before teaming up with Faf Du Plessis to plunder 65 off 36 for the third wicket.

The Dolphin bowlers were guilty of bowling short and being overtly predictive with their variations. With the ball coming nicely on to the bat, Raina was at home, sizing up the length, planting his foot forward and powerfully swinging across the line, having no trouble clearing the boundaries in Bangalore. Ravindra Jadeja gave CSK some extra momentum at the end, blitzing 40 off 14, setting up a monumental 243 for victory.

The Dolphins began earnestly, Cameron Delport and skipper Morne van Wyk clearing the boundaries with ease. Van Wyk was harshly adjudged leg-before to R Ashwin with the ball having pitched outside the leg-stump, but Delport continued to tee off. He swung his way to 34 off nine before a Mohit Sharma slower-delivery disturbed his woodwork. After that, there was sporadic resistance.

Cody Chetty seemed to get a recovery going, but could not find the boundaries regularly enough. Vaughn van Jaarsveld muscled a couple of sixes but both batsmen were undone by the guile of Dwayne Bravo, who in his first three-over spell, bowled only one delivery above 110 kmph.

Bravo’s mixture of cutters, slower balls and tantalizing loopy off-breaks seemed to confuse the Dolphins batsmen whose efforts at clouting the ball only ended in their bats drawing airy arcs over and under the ball.

Brief  scores: Chennai Super Kings 242/6 in 20 overs (S Raina 90, B McCullum 49, R Jadeja 40 n.o.) beat Dolphins 188 in 20 overs (C Chetty 37, C Delport 34; M Sharma 4/41, D Bravo 2/17) by 54 runs.

Tuesday’s game: Hobart Hurricanes vs Northern Districts: 8pm