2011 Chennai Super Kings season

Chennai Super Kings were one of the ten teams that took part in the 2011 Indian Premier League. They were captained for the fourth season in succession by Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The Super Kings had won both 2010 Indian Premier League and 2010 Champions League Twenty20 under Dhoni's captaincy.[1]

Chennai Super Kings
2011 season
CoachStephen Fleming
CaptainMahendra Singh Dhoni
IPLChampions
CLT20Group stage
Most runsMike Hussey (495)
Most wicketsRavichandran Ashwin (25)
Most catchesShadab Jakati (9)
Most wicket-keeping dismissalsMahendra Singh Dhoni (10)

The Super Kings completed a hat-trick of titles by winning the 2011 Indian Premier League. Thus, they became the first team in the history of IPL to successfully defend their title. They also won all the matches held at their home ground in Chennai that season and created a new record of becoming the first IPL team to win all of its home games. With this, they earned a direct qualification for the main event of 2011 Champions League Twenty20 where they could not replicate similar consistency before crashing out of the event in the group stages.

Background

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Chennai had a highly successful 2010 season where they emerged victorious in both Indian Premier League as well as Champions League Twenty20.[2] However, with the addition of two more teams in the IPL for the 2011 season, it was declared by the IPL Governing Council that each franchise can retain a maximum of four players of their squad for the 2011 season, only three of whom can be Indian players, and the rest of the international players would be put in the mega-auction. The spending power for each franchise at the mega-auction was restricted to $9 million.[3] The player retention clause also stated that if a franchise decides to retain four players, $4.5 million will be charged, leaving the franchise with only $4.5 million to spend at the auction.[4][5]

The Chennai franchise, keen to have the same set of core players, decided to retain the maximum number of players through the retention process. CSK retained captain MS Dhoni, vice-captain Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and Albie Morkel for a total of $4.5 million.[6] This left them with the power of spending only $4.5 million at the mega-auction.[7] At the mega-auction which was held on 8 and 9 January 2011 in Bangalore, the Chennai franchise could successfully bid for 14 players, eight of whom were part of their 2010 squad.[8]

Chennai Super Kings also managed to get back three domestic players who had been a part of their team in the first three years in Shadab Jakati, Anirudha Srikkanth and Abhinav Mukund.[9] Apart from these three, they also signed contracts with Tamil Nadu players Yo Mahesh, K. Vasudevadas and Ganapathi Vignesh.[10]

Before the start of the IPL season, CSK signed up New Zealand pacer Tim Southee as a replacement to Ben Hilfenhaus who was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury.[11] They also appointed former Australian fast bowler Andy Bichel as their bowling coach, replacing Venkatesh Prasad who moved to the newly formed Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise. Bichel had previously worked as Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling coach in 2009 before getting sacked after the team's disastrous season.[12]

List of players bought at the auction

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Player[13][14] Cost[13][14]
MS Dhoni (retained) $1,800,000
Suresh Raina (retained) $1,300,000
Murali Vijay (retained) $900,000
Albie Morkel (retained) $500,000
Michael Hussey $425,000
Wriddhiman Saha $100,000
Dwayne Bravo $200,000
Doug Bollinger $700,000
Ravichandran Ashwin $850,000
Subramaniam Badrinath $850,000
Scott Styris $200,000
Ben Hilfenhaus $100,000
Joginder Sharma $150,000
Nuwan Kulasekara $100,000
Sudeep Tyagi $240,000
Suraj Randiv $80,000
George Bailey $50,000
Francois du Plessis $120,000

Squad

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Players with international caps before the start of the 2011 IPL season are listed in bold.

No.[15] Name[15] Nationality[15] Birth date[15] Batting style[15] Bowling style[15] Notes[15]
Batsmen
03 Suresh Raina   India (1986-11-27)27 November 1986 (aged 24) Left-handed Right-arm off break Vice-captain
05 George Bailey   Australia (1982-09-07)7 September 1982 (aged 28) Right-handed Right arm medium Overseas
08 Murali Vijay   India (1984-04-01)1 April 1984 (aged 27) Right-handed Right-arm off break
13 Francois du Plessis   South Africa (1984-07-13)13 July 1984 (aged 26) Right-handed Right-arm leg break Overseas
33 Subramaniam Badrinath   India (1980-08-30)30 August 1980 (aged 30) Right-handed Right-arm off break
35 K. Vasudevadas   India (1985-01-26)26 January 1985 (aged 26) Left-handed Right-arm leg break
48 Michael Hussey   Australia (1975-05-27)27 May 1975 (aged 35) Left-handed Right-arm medium Overseas
77 Anirudha Srikkanth   India (1987-04-14)14 April 1987 (aged 23) Right-handed Right-arm off break
90 Abhinav Mukund   India (1990-01-06)6 January 1990 (aged 21) Left-handed Right-arm leg break
All-rounders
47 Dwayne Bravo   Trinidad and Tobago (1983-10-07)7 October 1983 (aged 27) Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast Overseas
56 Scott Styris   New Zealand (1975-07-10)10 July 1975 (aged 35) Right-handed Right-arm medium Overseas
81 Albie Morkel   South Africa (1981-06-10)10 June 1981 (aged 29) Left-handed Right arm medium-fast Overseas
24 Ganapathi Vignesh   India (1981-09-11)11 September 1981 (aged 29) Right-handed Right arm medium-fast .
Wicket-keepers
06 Wriddhiman Saha   India (1984-10-24)24 October 1984 (aged 26) Right-handed
07 Mahendra Singh Dhoni   India (1981-07-07)7 July 1981 (aged 29) Right-handed Right-arm medium Captain
Bowlers
04 Doug Bollinger   Australia (1981-07-24)24 July 1981 (aged 29) Left-handed Left-arm fast-medium Overseas
09 Yo Mahesh   India (1987-12-21)21 December 1987 (aged 23) Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast
17 Sudeep Tyagi   India (1987-09-19)19 September 1987 (aged 23) Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast
23 Joginder Sharma   India (1983-10-23)23 October 1983 (aged 27) Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium
27 Shadab Jakati   India (1980-11-27)27 November 1980 (aged 30) Left-handed Slow left arm orthodox
38 Tim Southee   New Zealand (1988-12-11)11 December 1988 (aged 22) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium Overseas
88 Suraj Randiv   Sri Lanka (1985-01-30)30 January 1985 (aged 26) Right-handed Right-arm off break Overseas
92 Nuwan Kulasekara   Sri Lanka (1982-07-22)22 July 1982 (aged 28) Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas
99 Ravichandran Ashwin   India (1986-09-17)17 September 1986 (aged 24) Right-handed Right-arm off break

Indian Premier League

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Michael Hussey took over from the retired Matthew Hayden as CSK's opener in 2011.

The Super Kings started their IPL 2011 campaign with a two-run win against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. Opener Anirudha Srikkanth won the Man of the match for scoring 64. But the Super Kings lost their second game of the season to the Kings XI Punjab, despite setting KXIP a target of 189, after Punjab's Paul Valthaty hit the first century of the season (an unbeaten 62-ball 120). Michael Hussey's 83* took them to a comfortable win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore before a defeat at the hands of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala in a rain-affected match at the latter's home ground. This match was followed by another close match against Mumbai Indians, which the Super Kings lost by 8 runs. Mumbai's spinner Harbhajan Singh achieved his career-best T20 figures of 5/18 in 4 overs during the match. However, in their next match at home against Pune Warriors India, Michael Hussey scored a half-century and the bowlers bowled economically to defend a total of 142. Two days later, against the same team in an away match, a spell of 3/21 by the Man of the match Doug Bollinger and a match-winning partnership between Subramaniam Badrinath and Suresh Raina saw the Super Kings complete a double over the Pune team. Against the Deccan Chargers, they registered their third straight win thanks to the all-round effort of Albie Morkel who took three wickets and then scored 19 from just 6 deliveries. Bollinger and Jakati also picked up two wickets each and bowled economically which helped them to overcome a quickfire half-century from the Chargers' opener Sunny Sohal.[16] They secured their fifth straight home victory in their next match against the Rajasthan Royals. Chasing a modest target of 148, Hussey, who struck 79* off just 55 balls, and Raina, 61* off 51 balls, put on an unbeaten century partnership to take Chennai to a comfortable eight-wicket win.[17] This was followed by a defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders in a rain-affected match at the Eden Gardens. A couple of days later, their batting came good in an away game against the Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur, where all the top-four batsmen scored 40-plus runs helping them win by 63 runs. The Chennai Super Kings extended their unbeaten home record by defeating the Delhi Daredevils and moving to the top of the table. MS Dhoni won the Man of the match for his knock of 63* (31), which was supported by Badrinath who also struck a half-century.[18] The Super Kings played their last home game against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala and won it by eleven runs. Wriddhiman Saha top-scored for CSK with a resilient 46*. With this win, they created a new record of becoming the first team to win all their home matches in the history of the Indian Premier League.[19] They faced the toppers of the points table, Royal Challengers Bangalore in their final league game at Bangalore. Dhoni's innings of 70* (40) was responsible for Chennai's total of 128/8 which was chased down with ease by the home side with Chris Gayle scoring an unbeaten half-century.[20] The Super Kings finished second on the league table with 18 points from 14 matches as they had a better net run rate than the Mumbai Indians who also had the same number of points.[citation needed]

The Chennai team faced the table-toppers Royal Challengers in the first Qualifier at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Dhoni, who won the toss, asked RCB to bat first. RCB lost Chris Gayle early but managed to put on 175 on board riding on an unbeaten 70 by Virat Kohli. Chennai's run-chase got off to a disastrous start as both the openers were dismissed within the second over. But then, Suresh Raina put on crucial fifty-run partnerships with Badrinath and Dhoni, taking CSK closer to the target. But after the dismissal of Dhoni, 45 was required from 20 deliveries and a victory seemed improbable. Then Albie Morkel hit 28* from just 10 deliveries which took the Super Kings to a six-wicket win with two balls to spare. Raina won the Man of the match for his unbeaten 73. The win took them to the finals which was to be played at their home ground. This was the third time in four seasons that they had entered the finals of the IPL.[21] They met the same team, Royal Challengers Bangalore at the final, after RCB defeated the Mumbai Indians in the second Qualifier. CSK won the toss once again, this time elected to bat first. They got off to a brisk start as openers Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay shared a record first-wicket partnership of 159 runs before Hussey got out for 63. Vijay continued his big hitting and struck four fours and six sixes in his innings of 95. Chennai ended their 20 overs on 202/5, which was the highest total at the venue in that season. R Ashwin struck in the very first over of the RCB innings, removing Gayle for a duck. The Super Kings bowlers kept picking up wickets regularly in the innings and eventually won the game by 63 runs and were crowned champions for the second time in succession. Murali Vijay was declared the Man of the Match for his match-winning innings.[22]

Thus, the 2011 season ended up as Chennai's most successful season because, not only did they successfully defend the title, but also assert their dominance in the league with a win percentage of 64.11, their highest in four seasons. They maintained an absolute home record in the season and became the first team to win the tournament at home. They also won the Fairplay Award for the third time in four years.[23]

Season standings

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Pos Grp Team Pld W L NR Pts NRR
1 B Chennai Super Kings (C) 14 9 5 0 18 0.443
2 B Royal Challengers Bangalore (R) 14 9 4 1 19 0.326
3 A Mumbai Indians (3) 14 9 5 0 18 0.040
4 B Kolkata Knight Riders (4) 14 8 6 0 16 0.433
5 A Kings XI Punjab 14 7 7 0 14 −0.051
6 B Rajasthan Royals 14 6 7 1 13 −0.691
7 A Deccan Chargers 14 6 8 0 12 0.222
8 B Kochi Tuskers Kerala 14 6 8 0 12 −0.214
9 A Pune Warriors India 14 4 9 1 9 −0.134
10 A Delhi Daredevils 14 4 9 1 9 −0.448
Source: ESPNcricinfo

Note: Top four teams qualified for the playoffs.
The top three teams also qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 while the fourth team played in the qualifying stage.

Match log

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No. Date Opponent Venue Result Scorecard Link
1 8 April Kolkata Knight Riders Chennai Won by 2 runs, MoM – Anirudha Srikkanth 64 (55) Scorecard
2 13 April Kings XI Punjab Mohali Lost by 6 wickets Scorecard
3 16 April Royal Challengers Bangalore Chennai Won by 21 runs, MoM – Michael Hussey 83* (56) Scorecard
4 18 April Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Lost by 7 wickets Scorecard
5 22 April Mumbai Indians Mumbai Lost by 8 runs Scorecard
6 25 April Pune Warriors India Chennai Won by 25 runs, MoM – Michael Hussey 61 (48) Scorecard
7 27 April Pune Warriors India Navi Mumbai Won by 8 wickets, MoM – Doug Bollinger 3/21 (4 overs)

Scorecard

8 1 May Deccan Chargers Chennai Won by 19 runs, MoM – Albie Morkel 19 (6) and 3/38 (4 overs) Scorecard
9 4 May Rajasthan Royals Chennai Won by 8 wickets, MoM – Michael Hussey 79* (55) Scorecard
10 7 May Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata Lost by 10 runs Scorecard
11 9 May Rajasthan Royals Jaipur Won by 63 runs, MoM – Murali Vijay 53 (40) Scorecard
12 12 May Delhi Daredevils Chennai Won by 18 runs, MoM – Mahendra Singh Dhoni 63* (31) Scorecard
13 18 May Kochi Tuskers Kerala Chennai Won by 11 runs, MoM – Wriddhiman Saha 46* (33) Scorecard
14 22 May Royal Challengers Bangalore Bangalore Lost by 8 wickets Scorecard
15 24 May Royal Challengers Bangalore (Qualifier #1) Mumbai Won by 6 wickets, MoM – Suresh Raina 73* (50) Scorecard
16 28 May Royal Challengers Bangalore (Final) Chennai Won by 58 runs, MoM – Murali Vijay 95 (52) Scorecard
Overall record: 11– 5. Champions. Qualified for 2011 Champions League Twenty20
 
Hussey scored the most runs for CSK

Most runs

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Player Innings Runs Average Strike rate Highest Score 50s
Michael Hussey 14 492 41.00 118.84 83* 0 4
Suresh Raina 16 438 31.28 134.76 73* 0 4
Murali Vijay 16 434 27.12 128.02 95 0 3
Subramaniam Badrinath 13 396 56.57 126.51 71* 0 5
MS Dhoni 13 392 43.55 158.70 70* 0 2

Most wickets

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Player Innings Wickets Average Economy rate Best Bowling 4w
Ravichandran Ashwin 16 20 19.40 6.15 3/16 0
Doug Bollinger 13 17 19.35 7.00 3/21 0
Albie Morkel 14 15 25.46 8.48 3/29 0
Shadab Jakati 14 10 33.60 7.60 2/21 0
Dwayne Bravo 6 6 26.16 7.85 2/21 0

Champions League Twenty20

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After finishing as the 2011 Indian Premier League champions, the team qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20. They had previously qualified for the 2008 Season which was subsequently cancelled and also the 2010 Season which they went on to become the Champions.[24]

Starting as the defending champions, the Super Kings faced IPL rivals Mumbai Indians in their first game. Mumbai won the close match mainly due to Lasith Malinga's batting performances towards the end. Chennai were involved in another close match and ended up victorious against the South African side of Cape Cobras with a man of the match performance from Dwayne Bravo. However Chennai's lost their next match to Trinidad and Tobago. CSK then faced the 2009 champions NSW Blues in a must-win encounter. CSK were eliminated after a decisive win for the visitors who were led by a hundred from David Warner.[25]

In the end, Chennai finished at the bottom of the Group with just 2 points while IPL counterparts Mumbai Indians and NSW Blues proceeded to the knockout phase.[26]

Season standings

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Group A
Team Pld W L NR Pts NRR
New South Wales Blues 4 3 1 0 6 +0.627
Mumbai Indians 4 2 1 1 5 –0.280
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel 4 2 2 0 4 +0.176
Cape Cobras 4 1 2 1 3 +0.229
Chennai Super Kings 4 1 3 0 2 –0.712
Teams marked  *  progressed to the next stage of the competition.
Team marked  †  were eliminated from the competition.

Match log

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Date Opponent Venue Result Scorecard Link
24 September Mumbai Indians Chennai Lost by 3 wickets Scorecard
28 September Cape Cobras Chennai Won by 4 wickets, MoM – Dwayne Bravo 46* (25) and 2/23 Scorecard
2 October Trinidad and Tobago Chennai Lost by 12 runs Scorecard
4 October New South Wales Chennai Lost by 46 runs Scorecard
Overall Record of 1 – 3

Failed to make Semi-Finals

Most runs

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Player Innings Runs Average Strike rate Highest Score 100s 50s
Michael Hussey 4 160 40.00 133.33 81 0 1
Dwayne Bravo 3 94 94.00 162.06 46* 0 0
Suresh Raina 4 68 17.00 109.67 28 0 0

Most wickets

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Player Innings Wickets Average Economy rate Best Bowling 4w
Ravichandran Ashwin 4 5 21.20 5.75 2/23 0
Dwayne Bravo 4 5 22.60 7.53 2/22 0
Doug Bollinger 4 5 28.00 9.43 3/30 0

References

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  1. ^ "Chennai Super Kings in 2011: Squad and details". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  2. ^ "Chennai crowned as IPL-3 champs". MSN Sports news. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  3. ^ "IPL mega auction 2011". Indian Cricket Fans. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  4. ^ "IPL player retention rules tilt level playing field". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  5. ^ Dubey, Abhishek; Dubey (2011). Dubey (ed.). The IPL Story: Cricket, Glamour and Big Money. 1 (I ed.). India: Pearson Education India. pp. 226–.
  6. ^ "Lion King of the Jungle". Sport Star. Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  7. ^ "Ganguly, Dravid shown the door, Kohli stays on". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  8. ^ "IPL player list". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  9. ^ "Mumbai sign Rayudu, Sathish". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Chennai Super Kings on the hunt". Scribd. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  11. ^ "Chennai sign up Tim Southee". ESPNcricinfo.
  12. ^ "Andy Bichel appointed Chennai's bowling coach". ESPNcricinfo.
  13. ^ a b "IPL player list". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  14. ^ a b "Five most costly cricket players of IPL 2011". Paycheck. Archived from the original on 1 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g "Indian Premier League 2011 / Chennai Super Kings Squad". ESPNcricinfo.
  16. ^ "Chennai v Deccan: Smart Chennai withstand Sohal blinder. Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers, IPL 2011, Chennai Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  17. ^ "Chennai v Rajasthan: All-round Chennai cruise to fourth straight win. Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2011, Chennai Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  18. ^ "Chennai v Delhi, IPL 2011: Chennai closer to play-offs with comprehensive win. Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2011, Chennai Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  19. ^ "Chennai v Kochi: Determined Chennai surge to top spot. Chennai v Kochi, IPL 2011, Chennai Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  20. ^ "Bangalore v Chennai, IPL 2011: Bangalore finish on top of table. Bangalore v Chennai, IPL 2011, Bangalore Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  21. ^ "Bangalore v Chennai, 1st qualifier, IPL: Raina stuns Bangalore to power Chennai into final. Bangalore v Chennai, 1st qualifier, IPL 2011, Mumbai Report. Cricket News". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
  22. ^ "Man of the Matches in IPL 4". All About Information. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  23. ^ "IPL 2011 Kingfisher fair play award". Content Carry. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  24. ^ "Champions League T20 Winners are again the majestic Chennai Super Kings". Headlines24X7. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  25. ^ "CSK has been below par in league stage". Articles (WN). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  26. ^ The Shorter Wisden 2011: Selected writing from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2011. Bloomsbury. 14 April 2011. pp. 240–. ISBN 978-1-4081-9699-1. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)