Unswerving Chennai Super Kings; an Ideal IPL team

Unswerving Chennai Super Kings; an Ideal IPL team: A successful team is a team in which there is a good opening pair promising to give a good base followed by a strong middle order to weaken the bowling attack, a great bowling line-up to bowl out the opposition and a leader to inspire and guide them to victory. Chennai Super Kings has fulfilled each and every aspect of the criteria and is the most successful team which gives a tough competition to the opposition every time they go out and play.

With the quick fire starts given to the team by the explosive batsmen followed by a strong middle-order hardly made the team face any difficulty in setting up a score to defend.  Even when the team chased a target, the bowlers had made sure that the batsmen did not have something huge to chase. The way the skipper Dhoni rotates his bowlers ensures no opposition batsman gets easy pickings. The fielding of the team has been top-notch with athletic fielders like Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja in the team.

From the beginning of the IPL, CSK have had legends by its side that did not let down any fan or expert.  With players like Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Muttiah Muralitharan and Michael Hussey, CSK was a star-studded squad MS Dhoni along with R Ashwin and Suresh Raina being the most important players for the team. They reached the finals in the very first season but were not lucky enough to pull off a victory.

With the start of another season CSK had Andrew Flintoff as another power performer. The third season of IPL ended with CSK as the champions. They followed this victory by winning the Champions League T20 in the same year. In 2011, CSK was able to defend their title of Champions. They were one of the best teams in IPL and each match had its own spice. Once again in IPL 6 CSK reached the finals but couldn’t win against the Mumbai Indians. In IPL 7 everyone was looking forward to see CSK in finals again and they did not let the supporters down. They reached the finals again the mighty Kolkata Knight Riders lifted the trophy.

With very few changes in the team since the beginning, the Chennai Super Kings is well led by the best captain- MS Dhoni. He is the only captain in the history of IPL to have captained a side in all the eight seasons. He has the coolest head among all active cricketers that we see in world cricket today. His decisions and field placements are top class and this is one of the prime reasons behind CSK playing some extraordinary cricket every time that they walk out. With his firing batting, he is known to play some of the most daredevil knocks, boosting totals and finishes the matches with great temperament as if he has it all scripted in his head already. CSK has received the fair play award given for fair play throughout the tournament for 5 times in the 7 seasons. It is quite obvious that under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, the players have positive state of mind which has made them achieve this fiat.

Along with a good team what CSK posses is a strong fan support. The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is their home-ground which is seen packed during all their home matches. The crowd which comes to support the team is not less than a 12^th man. They clap, they cheer, and they back the players and take it to another level for them. Even when the team is travelling, the fans don’t fail to fill the stands in yellow. It is because of the standard they have set for themselves that the fans come and support them wherever this champion team play. The ‘Whistle-Podu’ tag line has made fans reverberate the stadium with whistles.

A balanced team, a cool-headed captain, the standard of playing the sport and the fan following is what makes Chennai Super Kings an undisputed side in IPL.

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