Sydney: Former Australia and Chennai Super Kings batsman Michael Hussey remembers the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) qualifier against Chennai Super Kings, a six-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab in the 2010 IPL and Lakshmipathy Balaji’s hat-trick in the inaugural season of the tournament as his favourite IPL moments.
“We were in trouble at the Wankhede Stadium, Rashid Khan was bowling very well,” he said, talking about the 2018 qualifier against SRH in a video tweeted by CSK. “Faf (du Plessis) opened the batting and hung in there. We weren’t sure how we were going to win the match but he hit the winning runs against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and got us into that final and more importantly were went on to win that final.”
Du Plessis smashed 67 off 42 balls as CSK kept losing wickets at the other end chasing a target of 140. It was the lower order comprising Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh and Shardul Thakur that gave Du Plessis good company who saw CSK through.
In 2010, Dhoni took CSK through in Dharamsala against Kings XI Punjab by hitting 16 runs off the first four balls of the last over.
“In Dharamsala, coming into the game we were in fifth position, outside the top four. We had to win, the game was tight, it came right down the wire. MSD was out in the middle, Irfan Pathan was bowling for KXIP. We needed 12 to win off the last two balls and of course, captain cool hit two sixes in a row. Again were were good enough to go and win the final against Mumbai Indians,” said Hussey.
Hussey then remembered Balaji’s hat-trick, which was also the first ever by any bowler in the IPL, as he nominated the former fast bowler to talk about his favourite IPL moments.
IANS