Wrap Up to CLT20

Chennai Super Kings with the winners trophy of the CLT20 2014 at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

After 32 days of T20 cricket, here's the new Champions of the Champions League Twenty 20. None other than the Captain cool, MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings. It's been 32 days of action and drama. It all ended with two massive SIXES hit by Mahendra Singh Dhoni over the mid-wicket boundary off Yusuf Pathan to register an 8 wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders with 9 balls to spare. But the man of the moment was Pawan Negi for his career best bowling figures of 5/22 in T20s amidst the carnage going on all around him. KKR looked good to post a target in excess of 200 at one stage but Negi turned it upside down in the 19th over of KKR's innings conceding just 2 runs and picking up 3 crucial wickets as all the hard work done by Gambhir was undone. But eventually KKR reached 180 thanks to Yusuf Pathan taking the attack to Ashish Nehra.  Later Suresh Raina stole the show with a brilliant century studded with frequent boundaries. CSK never took the foot off the pedal as they were ahead of the required Run Rate right through the innings. Hence aptly breaking the 14 match unbeaten record of the KKR and more importantly winning the Champions League T20, 2014.

All the teams have fared well throughout the tournament. The most impressive of all were the Lahore Lions (PAK) and Northern Knights (NZ) during the qualifying stages as both the teams beat the defending Champions Mumbai Indians which was expected to enter the group stage without any complication. But Rohit Sharma's injury proved to be a huge setback and they missed the trick by not playing Corey Anderson.

Northern Knights showed super form in the qualifiers by winning all their matches and against the Cape Cobras in a rain hit match. But later they were handed rather shameful defeats by Hurricanes & Kings XI. The match against Tridents was also not a great outing.

Lahore Lions impressed everyone and so should they with their star studded line up with 6-7 International players including the Professor, Mohammed Hafeez. They had a great chance of qualifying for the semi-finals in place of the eventual champions CSK but they could not get over the line against Perth Scorchers as the match was a cliff-hanger with the later losing 7 wickets for a mere 62 but Mitchell Marsh proved to be more than enough to single handed grant themselves a consolation win on their way back home.

Cobras, Dolphins and the Barbados Tridents failed to impress barring bits and pieces of good performances. The match worth remembering was Cape Cobras vs Barbados Tridents where the unbeaten century (111) by Jonathan Carter, the 26 year old wicket keeper went in vain as Cobras won the thrilling encounter that went into a Super-Over.
The IPL franchise teams namely Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings were clearly offered no contention by the teams around the world. KKR portrayed amazing talent with all-round performances continuing from where they left in the IPL winning all their matches before faultering in the Final. As usual the mystery of Sunil Narine was unsolved this time around too but the greatest find for them is the amazing talent of Kuldeep Yadav. For CSK Suresh Raina is a class-act. It looks as if he is a magician when he bats hitting Sixes at will befitting the recipient of the Man-of-the-Series. Kings XI Punjab came into the tournament with great expectation to win the trophy with all the fire power they had with the likes of Sehwag, Maxwell, Miller, Vohra, Bailey and so on but the only match against CSK went all wrong as it resulted in a no competition semi final as they were all out for a lowly 117 chasing a not so big target of 182 baring in mind the recent record at Rajiv Gandhi Intl. Stadium and Kings XI's recent run. Chennai Super Kings were 4th time lucky as they were beat thrice in very high scoring encounters this year in the IPL.

Kane Williamson afetr his century against Cobras

Kuldeep Yadav in action against Perth Scorchers

Jon Carter during his unbeaten 111 against Cobras

D Munaweera after hitting a 50 against KXIP

P Negi after his career best 5/22

Karanveer Singh in action against Northern Knights

Saad Nasim after his half century against Perth Scorchers

Overall this tournament was a great success among the fans as there was obviously new champions crowned but the young talent like Kuldeep Yadav, Pawan Negi, Jonathan Carter, Karanveer Singh, Saad Nasim, D Munaweera and so on getting much required exposure to a greater audience to show case their talent. That's all from these great days of T20 action. Hope the readers enjoyed this effort. Stay tuned for some more T20 action around.