Hussey, Morkel star in Chennai victory

Michael Hussey hit a half-century and Albie Morkel bagged three wickets to help Chennai Super Kings post a 25-run win over Pune Warriors in an Indian Premier League match on Monday.

Australian Hussey made a 48-ball 61 and South African paceman Morkel took 3-29 as Chennai bowled and fielded impressively to restrict Pune to 117-9 after scoring 142-6 for their third win in six matches of the Twenty20 tournament.

Pune could never recover after being reduced to 40-4 in the opening six overs, with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Morkel taking two wickets apiece. Australian paceman Doug Bollinger finished with 2-20.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh top-scored with 34 for Pune, who suffered their third defeat in five matches. His 43-ball knock ended when Shadab Jakati held a superb diving catch in the covers off Morkel in the penultimate over.

Mithun Manhas was the other main scorer for Pune with 20.

Hussey earlier hit one six and six fours in his half-century to help Chennai reach a competitive total despite impressive bowling efforts from Pune pacemen Jerome Taylor (3-30) and Alfonso Thomas (2-29).

Put in to bat, Chennai made a solid start when Murali Vijay (31) and Hussey put on 64 for the opening wicket before Pune struck back with two quick wickets.

South African Thomas had Vijay caught by New Zealander Nathan McCullum at mid-wicket and then bowled Suresh Raina for two runs in the same over.

Hussey steadied the innings with a 52-run stand for the third wicket with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (26) before West Indies paceman Taylor, playing his first IPL match, took three of the last four wickets.

Taylor struck in his third over when he removed Hussey, who fell to a well-judged catch at long-on boundary by Manish Pandey, before dismissing Morkel in the same over.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 142-6 in 20 overs (M. Hussey 61, M. Vijay 31, MS Dhoni 26; J. Taylor 3-30, A. Thomas 2-29) beat Pune Warriors 117-9 in 20 overs (Yuvraj Singh 34, M. Manhas 20; A. Morkel 3-29, R. Ashwin 2-19, D. Bollinger 2-20) by 25 runs.

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