Cricket Tournaments

Chennai Super Kings 205 for 5 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 147 for 8 (Ashwin 3-16) by 58 runs
Man of the match: M Vijay

It was a perfectly scripted victory by the Chennai Super Kings. That would be the best way to describe the mauling they gave the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL final on Saturday night. Almost everything went according to plan for M S Dhoni’s men in yellow. They won the toss and batted first on a slowish pitch. Their openers, who had not put their best foot forward in recent games, came to the party and registered a record opening wicket partnership. Chennai ended up with a score in excess of 200 and, most importantly, man of the tournament Chris Gayle was sent back for a duck in the first over. What more could Chennai have asked for as they successfully defended their IPL title.

Murali Vijay was the star of the match. He had an ordinary tournament till date. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Vijay combined with Michael Hussey in a sensational 159 run opening stand, which lifted Chennai to a mammoth total on their home ground. R Ashwin then took care of Chris Gayle, by sending him back in the opening over for a duck and virtually sealed the fate of the game.

Vijay and Hussey looked in little or no trouble as they went about building their match winning partnership. Interestingly, even as a number of big shots were played in the opening overs, there was hardly an element of risk in those. Very few chances were offered. There was one from Vijay in the 10 over, when he played a flick that only just cleared Luke Pomersbach near the boundary. Had the fielder judged it perfectly, he might still have been able to hold on to it. But, it wasn’t to be. He then slogged the next ball, but survived an edge. That was about it though as Vijay learnt from his mistakes and did not play any more rash shots until he was approaching his ton.

The opening partnership lasted for one ball less than 15 overs and both the players matched each other perfectly. Hussey played his chip shots and also drove well. Well the occasion arose, he lofted the ball and got his fours and sixes as well. However, for most part he was content rotating the strike. A majority of the big hitting was left to Vijay at the other end. Vijay timed his lofted strokes perfectly on the big day. In between, he placed the ball properly in the gaps and ran exceedingly well between wicket. As a result, Vijay started cramping up and eventually fell short of his ton by five runs. Before him, Hussey also fell. But, by that time a great platform had been laid.

After their job with the bat was done, the bowlers took over and did an equally good job. R. Ashwin gave Chennai the best possible start with the ball sending back Gayle off the third ball of the innings. In a smart move, Ashwin bowled two deliveries that turned away from Gayle. The third one came in and skidded on. Gayle tried to cut it, but only ended up falling into the trap and edging one behind to Dhoni. A B de Villiers came in and hit a few fours, but did not last long enough to trouble Chennai. He was trapped by Shadab Jakati and when Suresh Raina accounted for Virat Kohli, the faintest of Bangalore hopes had disappeared as well.

Bangalore Royal Challengers 185 for 4 beat Mumbai Indians 143 for 8 by 42 runs

Man of the match: Chris Gayle

And Chris did it again! Bangalore sealed their spot in the finals of IPL 4 thanks to yet another magnificent effort from their ‘man Friday’ Chris Gayle. Co-incidentally, it was a Friday as well. The West Indian swashbuckler slammed 89 murderous runs to guide Bangalore to a match winning score. Gayle was dismissed 11 runs short of what would have been his third IPL ton this season. And after his dismissal, Bangalore struggled to up the ante. Even so his performance was enough to end up as the difference the two big sides.

Mumbai could not answer to Gayle’s exploit with the bat and eventually fell short by 42 runs. The openers did get off to a great start, but Gayle played his part with the ball too, bowling a tight over which produced just two runs. Following that the pressure built up and the innings started crumbing. Everything went according to plan for the Royal Challengers post the opening stand by Mumbai openers, which meant that Vijay Mallya’s team easily made it to the final of the tournament, which has produced some very ordinary cricket.

Though Gayle contributed in the field as well, it was his effort with the bat which, undoubtedly, made all the difference. Gayle also helped his opening partner, Mayank Agarwal, find his feet. The 20-year-old Agarwal wasn’t overawed by the occasion and contributed a handsome 41 off 31 in an excellent 113-run opening partnership, which set the tone of the game for both sides. Bangalore were rarely the second best after that.

Of course, the batting side was assisted in a big way by Mumbai Indians’ bowlers and some of their captains’ baffling tactics. First of all, Sachin Tendulkar elected to bowl first on a track where the side batting first has lost all but one game. Even more shocking was the fact that the new ball was given to Abu Nechim ahead of the best bowler of the tournament, Lasith Malinga. And they had to pay and extremely heavy price for it, that of losing the match itself.

Nechim tried his best to keep the Bangalore openers under check. Yet, he ended up conceding 27 runs. The first four came when an edge went past the slip region, another beat skipper Tendulkar, who was patrolling the mid-off area. This got worse for Nechim as Gayle slammed a six and an easy four and the tone of the game was set. At the other end, Agarwal took on Harbhajan Singh and came out first. Agarwal took most of the balls from Harbhajan’s first two overs, crashing him straight down the ground and also hitting with the turn. The World Cup winning off spinner was rather clueless.

For a change, Mumbai were shabby in the field too. Malinga dropped a catch offered by Agarwal at square leg. 57 came in the first four overs and then Gayle took on the other bowlers as well. In between, Malinga bowled and excellent over which went for a solitary run. However, the others were picked up for special treatment. Rohit Sharma bowled a few tight deliveries, before Agarwal launched for a four and a six. The first ten overs of the innings produced 111 runs, which culminated with Gayle slashing Nechim into the side screen for yet another maximum.

After dropping Agarwal, Rohit finally was the one who got. However, Gayle continued on his merry ways lofting a clueless Harbhajan for four consecutive sixes, all in the midwicket region. Munaf Patel finally managed to help Mumbai see the back of Gayle. A slower one foxed him as he missed a well deserved ton. Following Gayle’s dismissal, the runs dried down. The balls started playing tricks and suddenly Mumbai were left wondering why they couldn’t do the same earlier. Sadly, they knew the answer too. The Gayle effect.

During the tough chase, Tendulkar kept Mumbai in the hunt briefly. He played some proper cricketing shots and improvised as well during his impressive knock of 40 which came in just 24 balls. However, J Syed Mohammad turned out to be the hero for Bangalore as he managed to turn one sharply across Tendulkar and get his stumped, a rarity in cricket. The result struggled. Kieron Pollard, who has done nothing in the tournament, had one last chance to turn hero, but failed again. He was caught brilliantly in the deep by Abhimanyu Mithun, who lunged full stretch over the boundary and managed to claim a brilliant catch. By now though Bangalore were already celebrating as the match was over long before.

Chennai Super Kings 177 for 4 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 175 by six wickets
Man of the match: Suresh Raina

The Chennai Super Kings never looked like winning it and the Royal Challengers Bangalore never looked like losing it. Yet the end result was a sensational six wicket win for the former, who eventually became the first team to make it to the IPL finals in the fourth season. In a dramatic late assault, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel carted Zaheer Khan and S Aravind all over the park to completely tilt the momentum of the game, which they easily won in the end with ample wickets in hand. The efforts of Raina in particular undid all the good work done by Virat Kohli earlier in the evening, whose unbeaten 70 had taken Bangalore to a challenging 175 in spite of the early loss of their dynamo, Chris Gayle.

The win saw Chennai make their third final in the four year old competition while the task for Bangalore suddenly becomes a lot more challenging. Not only do they have to beat the winner of the eliminator, but even if they do so, they will meet Chennai again in the final and that too at the latter’s home ground, the M A Chidambaram stadium. And statistics point out that Chennai have not lost a single match on their home ground this season.

Looking back at the game, it was definitely their bowling that cost Bangalore a game they should clearly have won. However, a few bad overs was all it needed for things to turn around. It all began in the ninth over bowled by Virat Kohli. In an over full of full tosses, 16 runs were leaked to give Chennai some much needed. A few overs later things got even worse for Bangalore. Abhimanyu Mithun sprayed it all over the place and conceded 23 runs. It was about the time Raina was beginning to settle in. In this particular over, he carted Mithun for a six over covers and slammed another over covers. Despite all that, Bangalore still held the edge as the equation read a difficult 82 from 42 balls. And it only got worse from there as Gayle, who could not contribute with the bat, chipped in with a excellent spell of 0 for 19 from four overs to make the equation 58 from 24.

Bangalore held the edge clearly, but this is when Raina proved his worth to the tea. He took on Zaheer Khan, who bowled a marvellous first spell, during which he not only took out Michael Hussey, but was extremely mean as well. But, just like in the World Cup final, he was taken apart in his second spell, which had only one over left. Raina carted two big sixes in the midwicket region. At the other end, M S Dhoni brought him bottom-hand into play to get another six. Even though Dhoni fell on the same over, 20 runs came off it and Chennai were well and truly on track.

The arrival of Morkel signaled the beginning of the end for Bangalore. S Aravind was slammed over both long-on and long-off by him before Raina slashed a full toss into the midwicket boundary. The over cost one more than Zaheer’s and left Chennai needing only 12 off the last over to be bowled by Daniel Vettori. It was easy for Chennai having done all the hard work. Morkel hauled a boundary to wide long-on and deposited the fourth ball over midwicket to launch Chennai into yet another IPL final.

The assault of Raina and Morkel outdid the impressive effort of Kohli, who blended caution with aggression to guide Bangalore to a healthy total. All this after Gayle was trapped lbw by R Aswhin cheaply. Kohli, in the company of Luke Pomersbach, made sure the scoreboard kept ticking. Pomersbach took on Dwayne Bravo and collected 17 runs in the 15th over. Kohli, on the other hand, batted with mature aggression never looking ugly even while going for the big stroke. He scored comfortably against Raina and Morkel, with two sixes off the latter’s in the 19^th over. However, the same duo extracted their revenge by featuring in a match-winning partnership.

Kings XI Punjab 232 for 2 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 121 by 111 runs

Man of the match: Adam Gilchrist

In an ideally scripted world, the Royal Challengers would have outdone Kings XI Punjab with Chris Gayle going hammer and tongs at the picturesque Dharamsala. However, it was pretty much the other way round as Punjab skipper, Adam Gilchrist, who for a day returned to the Gilly of old and smashed Bangalore’s bowlers all over the park in a display of batting reminiscent of the equally big-hitting Gayle’s batting. Gilchrist found an exceptional partner in Shaun Marsh, who was equally aggressive, and the duo featured in a world record partnership of 206 runs as the Kings XI finally ended Bangalore’s winning streak. The mammoth 111-run win not only ensured that Gilchrist’s team was level on points with Kolkata, but also gave a massive boost to their net run rate as Bangalore folded up for a meagre 121.

Though there were other impressive performances in the game, the match was all about Gilchrist. Following his heroics with the bat, he made his impact on the game in the field too, taking an excellent catch diving to his left hand side. More that the wicket, it was the fact that Chris Gayle was dismissed that mattered the most. Bangalore are used to Gayle getting the team off to a great start. But, on this occasion, they were clearly in unknown territory and things only got worse. Ryan Harris sent back both Gayle as well as the other in form man, Virat Kohli. Then, Praveen Kumar continued his association with maidens, bowled his fifth of this IPL. With runs not coming, the Bangalore batsmen were forced to go after Piyush Chawla, who cleaned up the lower order, helping himself to four wickets.

Returning to the man of the moment Gilchrist, his knock would certainly give a run for its money to some of equally devastating innings by Gayle. Gilchrist took his time to flourish. In fact, most of the runs were scored by Paul Valthaty in the early part of the innings. It was only in the company of Marsh that Gilchrist really began to open up. He began by thumping a short ball from Abhimanyu Mithun and then sashayed down the wicket to loft S Aravind, who until then was proving rather economical, and then slammed him down the wicket again. At the other end, Marsh also got into the act and dispatched him for a six and a boundary. 21 runs came off the over, and Punjab were well and truly underway.

Kohli, taking over from the injured Daniel Vettori, brought in Gayle to try and slow down the scoring. But, on this day, everything was in vain. Gilchrist lofted for two mammoth sixes and Bangalore continued to bleed, left right and centre. Nothing changed even with the introduction of South African pace man Charl Langeveldt. Gilchrist pulled him for two massive sixes before completing a batting hat trick of sixes by depositing him over the midwicket boundary. The bowler and the captain could do nothing but watch in amazement.

Their expressions remained the same as Punjab weren’t done yet. Marsh also took the opportunity to prove some of his big hitting skills. He looted 30 runs off a Johan van der Wath, all on his own, which would have almost made Gilchrist jealous. The over was perfectly divided with three sixes and three fours. The boundaries came in the extra-cover region while the sixes ranged between midwicket, long-off and one straight down the ground. While for Punjab it rained fours and sixes, the same cannot be said of Bangalore, who clearly capitulated under pressure.

Chargers cruise to easy win over Warriors

Deccan Chargers 138 for 4 beat Pune Warriors 136 for 9 by six wickets
Man of the match: Amit Mishra

For once, the Deccan Chargers bowled to their potential and the result was that they were successful in keeping the Pune Warriors down to a chaseable total. Their batsmen too did not falter for a change as Kumar Sangakkara signed off with a consolation win for his team. All the Decaan bowlers, pacers Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma as well as spinners Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha were all over the Pune Warriors batsmen, as a result of which, the Yuvraj Singh-led side never found themselves in any position of strength. Daniel Christian too played his part in the bowling department as the Deccan Chargers cruised home to an easy six-wicket win.

The only thing that went right for Pune was when the aggressive Mitchell Marsh went after the bowlers. However, that only proved to be a flash in the pan for the Warriors. Kumar Sangakkara’s experiment of opening the innings with JP Duminy did not work. But, once the ball was in Steyn and Ishant’s hands, the Warriors’ collapse began. Jesse Ryder was sent back by an awesome catch taken by Ravi Teja in the cover region. Teja dived to his left and successfully plucked the ball. Sourav Ganguly could not repeat hits heroics of his comeback game. He offered a simple chance to Ojha at mid-off, off Christian’s bowling. Ojha, himself, got into the wicket-taking act when he fooled Pandey with an incoming delivery and disturbed his furniture.

Pune were in deep strife losing three wickets for 45, but things only got worse for them. Amit Mishra got back to back wickets to put paid to the Warriors hopes. He first forced Robin Uthappa to edge one which was held gleefully by the bowler himself. The very next ball, Mithun Manhas failed to read a googly and went for a cut, which proved fatal as his stumps were dislodged. From a disappointing 45 for 3, the Warriors slumped to a pathetic 45 for 5 and they were was no looking back from there.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh tried to steady the ship once again. Yuvraj slashed Ojha for two boundaries in a row, but could not last long enough as fell to Christian, top edging one. If at all the Warriors to gain some credibility to their scoreboard, it was due to a wonderful counter attack by the other Marsh – Mitchell. He slammed the spinners for some big hits as 34 runs came in the last three overs of the innings, Marsh finding some support from Wayne Parnell. It wasn’t enough though as Shikhar Dhawan and Sunny Sohal got their team off to a good start, before Sangakkara and Duminy shut them out of the game, and the tournament as well.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 151 for 1 beat Rajasthan Royals 146 for 6 by nine wickets

Man of the match: S. Aravind

The Rajasthan Royals were completely outclassed by their much superior opponents, Royal Challengers Bangalore, as Daniel Vettori’s men outdid Shane Warne’s struggling army. First, the Rajasthan’s batsmen undid the good work of their openers Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid to end with a disappointing 146 for 6 and then their bowlers also struggled against the in form trio of Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli as the batting side effortlessly got past the winning mark. Rajasthan’s fielding also let them down as they dropped crucial catches. In short, it turned out to be a totally one sided match.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowling was led by S Aravind, who was highly effective with his variations. In contrast, Rajasthan’s bowling was well below par against the rampaging Bangalore batsmen on a surface will clearly suited the latter side. The massive nine-wicket victory meant that Bangalore now need only one more win to assure their qualification into the next round. On the other hand, Shane Warne’s Rajasthan will need nothing less than a miracle to go through following another big loss.

The only time Rajasthan looked in control was when their openers Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson got them off to a solid start yet again. The dependable duo added 73 from 57 balls. Unfortunately, both the openers were dismissed in the space of three balls, both falling to Aravind, and the others couldn’t do much to repair the damage. On the other hand, Dilshan and Gayle slammed 68 from 40 deliveries before a great catch from Ross Taylor broke the partnership.

However, by the time Dilshan was dismissed, Bangalore were well in control of the game and, unlike Rajasthan, they did not throw away the great start given by their openers. Gayle’s knock silenced the Jaipur crowd very soon as their realised where their team was heading for rather soon. Gayle slammed an unbeaten 70, which means now he needs a mere 27 runs to claim the orange cap from Virender Sehwag, who has ruled himself out of the tournament to go in for his much delayed surgery.

Bangalore had raced to 38 when Warne put down Gayle at mid-off. That was possibly Rajasthan’s best chance to dismiss Gayle. He hardly offered any chances thereafter as he and Dilshan went about hammering the Rajasthan bowlers. All the first four overs of the innings went for over 10 runs an over as Bangalore were clearly underway.

Earlier, it was S Aravind’s three wicket haul that prevented Rajasthan from setting a challenging total despite an impressive start. Dravid and Watson had added 73 when Aravind got rid of both the openers in the 10th over. Aravind later returned to get the wicket of Johan Botha, who has played some crucial knocks in the IPL, to make sure that Rajasthan got no momentum going into the final overs.

Pune Warriors 120 for 5 beat Kings XI Punjab 119 for 8 by five wickets

Man of the match: Rahul Sharma

After a massive struggle, the Pune Warriors on Sunday ended their seven match losing streak by defeating Kings XI Punjab, who was themselves struggling to win too much. The five wicket loss meant that Punjab are slowly but surely catching up with Pune’s unenviable record. While Pune had lost seven, Punjab have so far extended their losing streak to five. Yet again, it was Pune’s lanky legspinner Rahul Sharma, who was the standout performer, and he eventually stood out as the difference between the two sides. For a change, he found some good support too in the form of Proteas fast bowler Wayne Parnell and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which helped Pune restrict the Kings XI to a below par 119.

Things did not look as bad for Punjab at the start of the innings as Paul Valthaty managed to pierce the off side boundary on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, their skipper Adam Gilchrist had another bad day in the office. While he hadn’t got off the mark in the last two innings, he managed just three in eight balls before failing to Rahul, trying to hit him out. Valthaty also failed to convert his starting, also succumbing to Rahul. Trying to cut a slightly shorter one, he failed to ride the bounce top edged one, handing a simple catch to the backward point fielder.

Shaun Marsh came in and once again batted with a sense of purpose, proving why he has been Punjab most efficient batsman in the IPL 2011. He played some wonderful strokes against the spinners in action. He lofted Yuvraj Singh over long-on, drove Rahul through the covers and even pulled Mitchell Marsh for a four. At the other end, he had Dinesh Karthik for company. The former India keeper wasn’t timing the ball as well as Marsh. Still, he hung around with the Australian and saw it to that by the end of 10 overs Punjab had laid a decent platform.

All the good work was wasted though as neither of them could capitalise on their starts. Marsh fell trying to slam a slower delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but only managed to drag it back onto the stumps. Another Aussie was the next wicket to fall for Punjab. David Hussey tickled one to the keeper without having scored much as Punjab collapsed to 94 for 4. Karthik was still around, but he couldn’t go much. Wickets kept falling and Punjab were eventually strangled to 119.

To make a comeback, Punjab bowlers had to put up an exceptional effort. Things began well, with Praveen Kumar starting of with a maiden over. However, the floodgates soon opened as Punjab messed it up in the field. Jesse Ryder was dropped by Valthaty in the fourth over while Manish Pandey escaped a plumb lbw decision. When a couple of wickets fell, Robin Uthappa came in and threw his bat around like a millionaire. He slammed 22 and Pandey contributed 28 before falling. And if Punjab had any faint hopes post their dismissal, skipper Yuvraj Singh put paid to them with some monstrous hits as Pune ended their losing streak.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 128 for 1 beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala 125 for 9 by nine wickets

Man of the match: Chris Gayle

One over was all that was needed to decide the fate of the match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. And that decisive over was bowled by Prasanth Parameswaran to guess who but Chris Gayle. 37 runs came of the over as the Kochi Tuskers were not expectedly stunned.

The over began by Parameswaran landing one on a length, which Gayle easily lifted over cover for a six. Trying to improvise, Parameswaran bowled the next ball a slower one. Unfortunately, it was a no ball and Gayle slammed it for six more, making it seven runs off the over. Worse was only to follow. The free hit delivery was slammed through midwicket for a boundary, while the next delivery was slashed through the cover region. Parameswaran’s face had a deplorable look like Stuart Broad had when Yuvraj hit him for six sixes.

The poor treatment to Parameswaran continued as the next ball was dispatched for six over cover and then another maximum, this time over long-off. Battling a lost cause, the bowler sent down a full toss the last delivery and the ball did not meet the blade of Gayle’s bat. Yet, he under edged it for four to give Parameswaran the pasting of a lifetime. Gayle fell for 44, but Tillakaratne Dilshan helped himself to a half century and Bangalore got home by nine wickets and an amazing 6.5 overs to spare. Dilshan hammered 20 in an over from Ramesh Powar to get the chase underway before Gayle took over the show.

Apart from their batting effort, their fielding was equally magnificent. Kochi had got off to a reasonable start, but once Bangalore got the breakthrough wickets kept tumbling as Kochi stumbled from 64 for 1 to 89 for 5 and never recovered from there. Skipper Daniel Vettori got the breakthrough for his team, luring Brendon McCullum into a slash, but fooling him in the length. Parthiv Patel looked in good touching, caressing a few boundaries, but once Gayle yorked Michael Klinger, the game changed. Vettori soon sent back Mahela Jayawardene, forcing him to edge one.

Then the great Bangalore fielding show began. Brad Hodge placed one behind point and charged down the track. Patel responded initially before realising there was never a run there. It was all too late by them though. AB de Villiers pounced onto a fierce throw, took him left handed and aimed it at the stumps, while still in an acrobatic stage. Zaheer Khan bettered his effort, pulling off a one handed stunner at short fine leg. Hodge had struck S Aravind off the hips and the ball was heading towards the fence when Zaheer lunged full length and took possession of it with minimal fuss.

Kochi eventually crumbed to 125, far from enough with the kind of form Chris Gayle and Dilshan were in on Sunday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 161 for 7 beat Delhi Daredevils 160 for 6 by three wickets

Daniel Vettori and J Syed Mohammad hit crucial boundaries to ensure that Virat Kohli’s half century did not go in vain as Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to chase the target of 161 with three balls to spare. Challengers looked in a bit of trouble after Kohli was dismissed, but both Vettori and Mohammad held their nerves to ensure Bangalore got home in the end despite Delhi’s comeback with the ball.

Until Kohli was at the crease, the Bangalore chase looked in control as he was finding the ropes at will during his wonderful half-century. However, David Warner scored a direct hit to run out AB de Villiers and give Delhi some inspirational hope. Only a couple of balls later, Morne Morkel cleaned up Kohli and the match was very much back in the balance. The pendulum swung as Mohammad managed to pinch two boundaries off Umesh Yadav. Vettori also played a solid hand as Bangalore got home in the last over.

While credit must be given to the abovementioned duo, it was undoubtedly Kohli who set up the victory. He hit boundary after boundary as Delhi looked clueless. And this was after Tillakaratne Dilshan was gone second ball of the innings. Kohli managed as many as six boundaries in the first ten balls he faced as Ashok Dinda and Irfan Pathan were lacklustre. Pathan in particular was disappointing as Kohli took a liking to him, flicking and driving with a lot of ease.

At the other end, Chris Gayle was getting into his act too. He began by hammering Morne Morkel for a four and a six. 62 came in the first five overs as Bangalore looked at total ease. James Hopes gave some hope to Delhi by dismissing Gayle with a shorter one but not before they had added 82 in rapid quick time. Kohli brought up his fifty very soon. But, soon Delhi had their moment too as Villiers failed to beat a Warner throw and Morkel sent back Kohli.

Wickets continued to tumble as Cheteshwar Pujara perished going for a pull. Vettori and Tiwary scraped around for a while before the latter hammered Morkel for a crucial six. Morkel had his revenge soon enough and Abhimanyu Mithun too succumbed to the pressure, before the cool heads of Mohammad and Vettori saw them through to the end with some crucial boundaries.

Earlier in the day, James Hopes scored a half century to help  Delhi recover for a poor start. Zaheer Khan and S Aravind troubled the opening pair of Virender Sehwag and David Warner, with the new ball doing enough. They were never in with a chance of setting up a decent total until Hopes and Venugopal Rao combined in a fifth wicket alliance of 47. Warner was cleaned up by an incoming Zaheer snorter. Sehwag hit a few streaky boundaries before running himself out.

Thanks to the partnership between Rao and Hopes, Delhi had a decent platform with five overs to go, But, Rao lost his cool and cost Delhi some crucial runs. A few sixes from Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha took Delhi to 160, but Bangalore had enough in their  arsenal to chase it down.

Chennai were brilliant in the field

Chennai Super Kings 142 for 6 beat Pune Warriors 117 for 9 by 25 runs

Chennai Super Kings got back to their winning ways as they successfully defended a mediocre score of 142 for 6 against Yuvraj Singh’s Pune Warriors, who struggled to 117 for 9 in their allotted 20 overs to lose the game by a pretty big margin of 25 runs. Chennai were very good with the ball as well as in the field, which enabled them to outdo Pune in spite of having put up a less than competitive score on the board.

Albie Morkel and Doug Bollinger, who opened the bowling, were excellent at the start of the innings for Chennai. They bowled a number of good short deliveries on the responsive pitch and the Pune openers clearly struggled. Mohnish Mishra fell to the slow nature of the surface. He tried to guide a ball down to the third man region, but only ended up edging it onto the stumps. Jesse Ryder managed to survive the faster men, but was done in by the smart R Ashwin. The off spinner bowled an arm ball disturbed, which the left hander couldn’t read and ended up exposing his stumps.

There was more trouble for Pune as Manish Pandey also fell while trying to steer a ball from Morkel down to the third man region and, like Mishra, also ended up disturbing his stumps. Soon, Pune plunged into further difficulty as Ashwin’s carom ball turned the other away and even fooled the in form Robin Uthappa, who was beaten all ends up and was bowled round his legs. Pune never recovered from that terrible start.

M S Dhoni introduced more spin as Suraj Randiv and Suresh Raina contributed with a few quiet overs. It was up to Yuvraj and Mithun Manhas to try and bring Pune back on track. Manhas did manage a mishit six off Randiv, but perished soon after ending Bollinger to Dhoni. With wickets falling, Chennai’s fielding also improved by leaps and bounds as the runs dried up. Yuvraj managed 34 but wasn’t in his elements and another brilliant fielding effort from Shadab Jakati enabled Chennai to see the back of him. The chase had already run out of steam by then.

Earlier, Pune had done much better during their turn with the ball to restrict Chennai to 142. Chennai themselves struggled, with M Vijay failing to time the ball. Both He and Michael Hussey were lucky as a number of edges made it to the boundary, with Hussey even being dropped once. But, it wasn’t going to be long before Pune got their deserved breakthrough. Vijay fell to a bouncer from Alfonso Thomas as Nathan McCullum took the simplest of catches. Thomas soon knocked over Raina as well as Chennai struggled their way to the halfway stage of the innings.

The spin of Yuvraj and Murali Kartik kept the runs down further with only Hussey holding fort for Chennai. Dhoni helped Hussey by slamming a couple of boundaries before he was stumped going for another big one. There was more bad news for Chennai as Hussey too fell a few balls later to Jerome Taylor, while trying to add more runs in Chennai’s account. Morkel had another failure with the bat and even a six from S Badrinath only enabled to lift them to 142. In the end, thanks to Chennai’s bowling and fielding effort it was enough.

Mumbai Indians 164 for 4 beat Chennai Super Kings 156 for 9 by eight runs

Man of the Match: Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh picked up three wickets in one over to quell Chennai Super Kings challenge completely against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. The off spinner’s deciding over was the 18^th over of the match, and until then, it was anybody’s game thanks to a superb innings by Subramaniam Badrinath, who remained unbeaten on a brilliantly compiled 71 off 48 balls, but his team fell short of victory by eight runs. Earlier, in the day, Rohit Sharma played a rare knock that did complete justice to his abundant talent, caressing the ball with ease en route to his 48 ball 87, a potential man of the match performance but for the antics of Harbhajan later in the day. The Mumbai Indians were also exceptional with their fielding, which only added to the pressure on the Super Kings, who eventually succumbed.

Coming back to the Harbhajan over, chasing 165 the Super Kings were 136 for 5 in the 18^th over and looked like they would easily coast to a win. However, Albie Morkel fell off the second ball of the over, his slog sweep only making contact with thin air as the ball breached the bat and crashed into the middle stump. That was the beginning of the end. Ravichandran Ashwin, trying to clear the field himself after facing one ball, instead of giving back the strike to his well-set mate, perished giving a catch in the deep. And to make matters worse, Joginder Sharma hit one up in the air the very next ball to offer Harbhajan his third wicket of the over and fifth overall. A helpless Badrinath could only watch from the other end as one after the other his partners departed. Sachin Tendulkar smartly brought Lasith Malinga on in the next over to ensure the game was put beyond Chennai’s reach. And despite, Badrinath’s best efforts, including a six in the last over, the target was beyond reach for Chennai.

Earlier, in the innings as well, Malinga and Harbhajan were responsible for keeping Mumbai ahead of the game by striking crucial blows. Malinga got rid of the dangerous looking Michael Hussey, who had unhurriedly rushed to 41 off 33 balls and was threatening to take the game away from the Mumbai Indians. However, a brilliant piece of catching cut short his innings and brought Mumbai back in the game. Harbhajan, at the other end, got the big scalps of Suresh Raina and Srikkanth Aniruddha to start the Chennai collapse. At the fall of Aniruddha’s wicket, Chennai were 123 for 5 and things only got worse for them, with Harbhajan scalping three more and Malinga added a wicket to his kitty as well.

Harbhajan’s effort pretty much overshadowed the one by Rohit Sharma earlier in the day. His contribution was equally crucial to the team’s cause though. Mumbai had lost their openers Rajgopal Satish and skipper Sachin Tendulkar to great deliveries under seam-friendly conditions earlier in the day. But, on this day, Rohit was unfazed. Of course, he was aided by some poor bowling as he was offered three boundary balls in his first four balls and accepted all of them – the wicket-takers Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel being the guilty party. That got Rohit off, setting the tone for his innings, and he never looked back.

Rohit found solid company in the form of Ambati Rayudu, with him he did the repair job with great élan. Rayudu is a special talent himself, but this Mumbai innings was all about Rohit. He was severe in his gentle manner on every bowler. Joginder Sharma’s half volleys were dispatched, Suraj Randiv’s flighted spinners were lofted with ease and the penultimate over from Suresh Raina went all over the park. Rohit deposited him over long on, slog swept him and banged him over midwicket as 17 runs were added to the total. At the other end, Andrew Symonds also took charge, slamming two huge sixes in his unbeaten knock of 31. But, even Symonds brutality paled in comparison to Rohit’s sublime knock, which indicated why the Indian selectors have been so exasperated by his underperforming was. He is special talent for sure, but he needs to deliver more knocks like the one on a good Friday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 175 for 1 beat Kolkata Knight Riders 171 for 5 by nine wickets

Man of the match: Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle arrived, he slammed the ball and he conquered the Kolkata Knight Riders. Yes, that in short was the tale of the game between Shah Rukh Khan’s team and the Vijay Mallya owned franchise. Flown in as a replacement for the injured bowler Dirk Nannes, Gayle batted as if he had a point to prove to his former team, bludgeoning 102 off 55 balls, inclusive of seven huge sixes to make a mockery of KKR’s challenging target of 171. It was a win the Royal Challengers were desperately seeking and Gayle addition certain has come as a force to be reckoned with for the Challengers, making one wonder how he wasn’t selected in the initial auctions, and even more surprisingly, how he was left out of the West Indies squad.

That topic can be discussed on a later day, but on Friday, it was all about Gayle massacring the Kolkata bowlers, but Gautam Gambhir forced to sit back and watch in dazzled amazement. He featured in two partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli and dominated both. Dilshan it was who began as the aggressor taking on Yusuf Pathan, who opened the innings on a tricky pitch. But once Gayle got his eye in, it was all him, but even the aggressive Dilshan happy playing second fiddle.

He began by whacking the left arm seam of Jaidev Unadkat for six well over long-on. Shakib Al Hasan was next in line and was given the same treatment. The Bangladesh skipper’s deliveries disappeared over midwicket and deep square leg. The Gayle party had just begun though. Yusuf was lofted over covers, Manoj Tiwary over long-twice on, one of them being mistimed, which also went for six. When Gambhir tried medium pace, it didn’t work either. Rajat Bhatia was hit all over the park, conceding 17 in an over. And just to prove that he was not all about hard force, he guided one down to third man to pick up one of his 10 boundaries.

All this while Dilshan, who was once running neck and neck with Gayle, fell way behind. The only time one realised that he was also batting was when he perished in the 13^th over, trying to remind everyone that he too could play the big strokes. But Laxmipathy Balaji was good enough to get through his defence. But, by that time Bangalore had raced to 123 for 1 and the game was over. If KKR believed they had any grim hopes, Virat Kohli blew that away pretty soon. In fact, he nearly blew away Gayle’s chances of getting a ton when he instinctly dispatched a full toss to the boundary, with Gayle still needing two for his 100. There was no more drama though as the West Indian crashed Hasan to get to his 100 as well as take his new franchise to victory.

Earlier in the day, it seemed that KKR would get back to their winning ways courtesy an impressive batting performance. Zaheer Khan was taken to the cleaners once again as KKR raced to 33 in two overs. Sanity was restored when spin was introduced, but KKR continued to build on the start. The opening pair of Kallis and Brad Haddin added 44 inside 5 overs, Kallis, Gambhir and Pathan all contributed 40s, but no one could build on from there. Still, KKR reached 171 for 5, which was handy. In hindsight though, it was far from enough, and Kolkata were left ruing the fact that they could not cross 190 after garnering 33 in the opening two overs. To be fair to KKR though, with the mood Gayle was in, even that wouldn’t have been enough.