A brilliant unbeaten century from Australian Michael Hussey powered Chennai Super Kings to a 33-run victory in their Indian Premier League opener against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday.
Hussey notched up a sparkling 116 from just 54 deliveries to guide the visitors to a mammoth 240 for five from their 20 overs.
Punjab could manage only 207 for four in reply, despite the best efforts of James Hopes (71 from 33 balls) and Kumar Sangakkara (54 from 33).
Chennai won the toss and opted to bat first, with openers Parthiv Patel and Matthew Hayden looking to get out of the blocks quickly.
Patel perished for 15 in only the third over, however, when he got an outside edge to a fine ball from Brett Lee and was snapped up behind the stumps by Sangakkara.
That brought Hussey out to the middle to join his countryman Hayden, although the latter did not hang around for too much longer before he was bowled by Irfan Pathan for 25.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni contributed just two to his team's total before finding himself stuck on the back foot and trapped leg before wicket by Hopes.
Suresh Raina made 32 before mis-timing a good length ball from Wilkin Mota and finding Pathan at long on.
Hussey's half-century came off just 31 balls, and he showed no sign of letting up after reaching the mark.
Jacob Oram was dropped on four by Shantha Sreesanth off Mota, but did not make the hosts pay. He added just nine more before being bowled to become Pathan's second victim of the day.
Subramaniam Badrinath joined Hussey and hit a quickfire 31 off just 14 deliveries to give Chennai's total one decisive last kick.
The Punjab response got off to a solid enough start, but they were always struggling to keep up with the 12-plus required run-rate for victory.
Karan Goel managed 24 before finding Patel at mid-wicket off Manpreet Gony in the sixth over, and Hopes' blistering knock came to an end in the 11th when he holed out to Joginder Sharma at long-off from a Palani Amarnath delivery.
Yuvraj Singh briefly threatened to get his team back in it but, after contributing 23 from 13 balls, was caught at long-on by Amarnath off the bowling of Sharma.
Sangakkara became the first IPL victim of his Sri Lanka colleague Muttiah Muralitharan in the 18th over when he found Sharma at long-on.
Simon Katich and Pathan finished unbeaten on 21 and three respectively but were always fighting a losing battle trying to surpass the Chennai total.
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