The Great Game Called Cricket...

It was an unusual day in Chennai. To begin with, it was not oppressively hot. And halfway through the game, the hosts' power-packed batting line-up was restricted by a team on the brink of elimination at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, which is a fortress for the Chennai Super Kings. Tight lines, varied lengths and some good catching from Kochi Tuskers Kerala helped limit Chennai to a score that exceeded Parthiv Patel's expected target by 12 runs. But poor wicketkeeping from Parthiv, and a death-overs surge from Wriddhiman Saha meant Chennai still had enough to entertain hopes of climbing to the top of the IPL table.

For those who were witness to Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh's entertaining onslaught against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday, this innings was a slightly laborious affair. However, it would require Kochi to replicate what Kings XI Punjab achieved in Dharamsala in order to remain mathematically alive in this competition.

Unlike Bangalore, who had doled out freebies to a merciless Australian pair, Kochi bowled with discipline for much of the innings. The seamers didn't dish out length deliveries and often cramped the batsmen for room, while Muttiah Muralitharan prompted caution and restraint from the Chennai batsmen. And when the batsmen did improvise and went on the attack, a wicket, earned more than handed out, pegged them back.

M Vijay flat-batted RP Singh, clipped him over square leg and launched one over his head to pick up three boundaries in the third over, but was cleaned up with a perfectly-aimed yorker off the final ball. Suresh Raina was let off first ball, when Parthiv spilled one diving to his left, and Sreesanth, the frustrated party, was made to rue that lapse with two huge sixes over long-on. But the bowler hit back the same over, when Raina miscued a full toss. S Badrinath hit a massive six off Hodge in the 10th over, but was brilliantly caught in the deep while attempting a similar shot as RP dived full length to his right and plucked it inches from the ground.

Amid all this, Michael Hussey was dropping anchor, though the pressure to increase his strike-rate with wickets falling around him reflected in his shot-making. An attempted paddle resulted in a clean catch by Parthiv, but was shockingly turned down by Rudi Koertzen. Not long after, in the 13th over, Parthiv missed a stumping off Hussey, having let off Saha the previous over. Hussey eventually fell to a good running catch from Gnaneswara Rao, but Saha took centrestage at the death.

Saha swept Ravindra Jadeja over square leg, charged out to Murali to deposit him over long-on and hammered RP over deep midwicket in an enterprising cameo that undermined Kochi's initial success with the ball.