There were other teams who threatened to storm away with the title like the pre tournament favourites- The Victoria Bushrangers who never really arrived to the party; The mid tournament favourites- The South Australian Redbacks and The Bangalore Royal Challengers who were a bit unlucky to lose the services of their pace spearhead and the best allrounder.
It was a colourful beginning in the Rainbow Nation to the big club tournament and the superkings overcame an initial hiccup to clinch their first game against the central stags of newzealand quite comfortably. This time the found their life jackets with two of the lesser celeberated members of the yellow brigade- Badrinath and Anirudh Srikanth. The superkings were down on their back after losing 3 quick wickets with less that 30 on board. Badri and Anirudh saw the team through the new ball without further damage before launching on to the big lusty ones. They have lifted the team from a pothole to a mountain from where it became easier for bollinger and co. to rattle the spine of the stags.
Then came the Wayamba Elevens from Srilanka. This was the occassion for two young talents from the yellow camp to come to the party. Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina tore the Wayamba attack to peices. The bowling was well handled by the likes of Ashwin, Bollinger and the Maestro Muralitharan. Then came the 'Match of the Tournament' against the Victoria Busrangers. Chennai went in with two changes Mathew Hayden was dropped and in came Mike Hussey. This might have well been the signal to end an era of the great aussie southpaw. Albie morkel was forced out due to injury and Justin Kemp replaced him. The Super Kings had just managed 150 odd in their 20 overs and Victoria began their chase in style. Finch launched on to Bollinger and Ashwin before the latter got the better of him. Then it was upto Dave Hussey to steady the Ship. The Ship was sailing smoothly until tornado 'Raina' threatened to blow them away. He took four wickets in two overs including two in the last over to end the scores on level at the end of fourty overs. Then came the super over and from the CSK it was neither Bollinger nor Murali who bowled it. It was the talent of Ashwin which Dhoni trusted but Dave Hussey had other plans which spoilt his elder brother debut game in the tournament. He hoicked Ashwin for three huge sixes which was enough to seal the fate of the match. The Men in Yellow had lost the match in the super over . Post that came the Eastern Warriors and the Superkings won it due to their splendid spin web, which meant they had qualified for the semis along with the warriors from the group.
The semis though was a different ball game on a seaming durban wicket with Dale Steyn in the opposition. However luck again went Dhoni's way. Dale Steyn had just completed a spledid catch to dismiss Mike Hussey and in the process hurt himself which ruled him out of the game. In came Raina and started his intimidating attack against a bowling attack which lacked the tooth without Dale Steyn. It was a daunting task for the Royal Challengers to score at more than 10 runs per over and they failed miserably. The Men in Yellow had stormed into the Finals of The Airtel Champions League.
For the first time in the tournament Dhoni failed with the toss and it looked like things would go terribly wrong for them in the game too. A Hurricane named 'Davey Jacobs' threatened to swirl them away in no time. Jacobs was treating Bollinger and Morkel with utmost disrespect. Warrors had reached 48 in 5 overs. In came Ravichandran Ashwin who removed Jacobs in his first over. An attempt at reverse sweep has miserably failed and Ashwin had his big scalp. There after the chennai spinners had spun their web over the warriors batting line up . The warriors finished at 138 in 20 overs. Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay approached the total with ease and the Chennai Super Kings had created history. They are the first Indian Team to win the CLT20. In the process they had also won themselves a huge jackpot of 2.5 million USD apart from the Golden stumps( Ashwin) Golden Bat (Murali Vijay) and the Man of The Series awards (Ashwin).
The win will be remembered for a long time ahead as this will be the last time that these bunch of dynamic cricketers will be together. With the fresh auctions coming up it will be a big challenge for the CSK management to retain most of the player who have been part of their success over the past three years
