The Unofficial Fan Blog

The owners didn’t buy teams and players just to play matches. They want to make profits (atleast in long run).

Just for fun, I’m going to list the endorsements by the Super Kings.

Aircel - Ungal Anni. Ungal Kural. (Your team. Your voice.)

A half page newspaper ad where 11 members of the team (Dhoni, Raina, Patel, Balaji, Hussey, Hayden, Muralitharan, Fleming and 3 others whom I can’t remember) in traditional tamil attire - shirt & veshti posing with folded hands.

I really liked that ad. Was spotted in newspaper before the IPL. Certain Bus Stops still sport that super kings ad.

Aircel - Golden Bat Contest

We need to buy a Rs 55 Golden Bat Recharge card and scratch the reverse. If the word ‘PLAY’ is printed, then you’re eligible to play wherein you need to write a slogan which will fetch you the reward.

You have Joginder Sharma, MS Dhoni (holding bat as if acknowledging the crowd after a 100) and Suresh Raina in the team jersey pose in the Ad.

Peter England Elite - Chennai Super Kings Collection

A nice Ad in newspaper where Ntini, Raina, Dhoni, Murali and Fleming pose casually for Peter England, the formal wear sponsor of CSK. They have launched Peter England Elite - formal, morning and evening collections.

Watch the event here: Chennai Super Kings and Peter England.

Reebok - Merchandises and Jersey

Right now the official site states that stuffs is ’sold out’ but Reebok will come up with the jersey and other merchandises. SRK opened a KKR - Reebok store in Kolkata recently and hopefully something on the similar lines will be in Chennai too.

It’s important for the sponsors that the team have a fan following and perform well.

CSK on a Hat Trick victory and L Balaji gets IPL’s first Hat Trick wickets.

Again a good victory for Chennai Super Kings and we are back to the winning ways.

We batted well, though I thought we should’ve scored 200 (scored only 20 runs in 4 overs). Nevertheless it was a team effort and won quite comfortably in the end.

We now know who’s the real king and who’s the prince. Super Kings Beat Kings XI two times in this IPL.

With 75.5 (Max. 80) in 8 matches, we are the leaders in the Kingfisher Fair Play Award standings.

Only 2 teams have played 8 matches (till may 8th), nevertheless we were the only team during the initial stages of the tournament to be ranked high in points and fair play standings. Is it a coincidence that the top performing teams were ranked low in fair play standings?

M S Dhoni during the post match ceremony said the players were not good in ‘expressing themselves’ after taking a wicket, scoring a 50, winning the match, etc.. And we saw an over acting expression! Anyways good for the team that they gel together and perform as an unit.

Go on CSK! Snap up the fair play award and the IPL cup.

So finally we’re back to winning ways!

A really good victory for the Chennai Super Kings on the back drop of loosing 3 matches on a row.

It was a final ball finish, a completely new look side, a strong opponent and was an away match.

I thought it was a great composition. The team management didn’t want non performers. That meant Partiv Patel, Ntini and Anirudha out of the playing eleven. What ever I posted here (better 11, faster run rate and field first) was executed and we won.

We need to work on a few things - fielding and improve the bowling. Hope the Kings XI also come under Kings rule!

By the way, the Delhi crowd should learn how to be sportive from the Chennai junta.

Albie Morkel - the man who hits sixers. 

And they go out of the ground. 

Writing this as he smashes Sehwag for 3 sixes (and a boundary) consecutively. That’s the impact which brings down the asking rate from over 10 to around 9 in a blink. 

Last match against the Deccan Chargers, he hit a six, which was sent out of the ground. MAC, Chepauk is not a small ground and it was calculated that the ball had gone 124 meters. 

How could they know how far the ball travelled if we’ve no clue as where it had landed? :d

Chennai Super Kings is a good side. But there are some issues which needs to be taken care of. When we’re winning, everything seem to look perfect but only when we lose, we can be aware of the shortcomings we’ve.

Here’s some issues I feel we need to focus on and do something about it…

A Better Playing 11

Why is Joginder Sharma playing? He can’t bat and field. He bowls medium pace and is so-so with it. Coming to Parthiv Patel. He was chucked out of the Indian Team after given a lot of time to prove himself. In the 6 matches he played, baring 2-3 good starts, didn’t fire as much as he should’ve.

We need to be looking at P Amarnath in lieu of Sharma. Some local lad should replace P Patel.

Slow Run Rates and Modest Targets

Though we won against Bangalore and Mumbai, I feel we were lucky to scrap through. In all the 6 matches we didn’t score well in the power play. It’s during the last 5-6 overs, we saw some action.

Any one of the opening batsmen should go after the bowling. During the course of the 20 overs, we should see a target of 190-200 runs.

Win Toss and Field First

Dhoni wins the toss, bats first and we lose or get scrap through. The match where we fielded first (against Kolkata), we won comfortably with 9 wickets.

Some small corrections needs to taken care of like the ones above, fielding, etc.. Otherwise we’re a good side and will reach the semis.

Good luck against Deccan Chargers. Hope we’ll win the tie.

Dilhara Fernando of the Mumbai Indians in a post match interview after their victory against Delhi Daredevils, that the team management might not change the playing eleven. 

While Dilhara might be wrong, I feel Sachin shouldn’t play before the start of the second phase of the league.

Let him take his time and be back with a bang.