The Great Game Called Cricket...

Chennai Super Kings continued their dominance at home and eased to a fourth-successive win in conditions where power play took a backseat to opportunistic strokemaking, and stamina and steady consolidation was more crucial than short outbursts of runs. The sweltering Chennai heat and a slow pitch made it a tiring ordeal for batsmen, and it seemed at one stage that Rajasthan Royals, riding on the back of Rahul Dravid's fluent half-century, would have the better of the contest. But an inspired recovery from Chennai's faltering bowlers and a controlled approach to the chase from Suresh Raina and Michael Hussey set up Chennai's comfortable win - their fifth in five games at home this season.

The Rajasthan openers, Dravid and Shane Watson, had displayed excellent determination to occupy the crease and set a strong foundation to their team's innings. The pair ran well between wickets, rotated the strike, picked the gaps to scramble back for the twos, before Dravid took charge against the spinners. He pulled R Ashwin twice in an over to the midwicket fence, reverse-swept and punched Suraj Randiv for three fours in an over to different parts of the ground. The highlight of the first ten overs was his inside-out drive over extra cover off Shadab Jakati, as Rajasthan coasted to 86 in the first ten overs.

The trigger for the fightback was a brilliant return catch from Jakati off Watson, as he put his hands up and intercepted a ferocious thwack back towards him in the 11th over. Despite an encouraging run-rate, and with plenty of ammunition left in the batting for a surge at the death, the desire for clearing the ropes overrode any thought of building the innings for a few more overs. Ashok Menaria holed out needlessly against Ashwin, and Johan Botha, who had picked a cheeky boundary, succumbed when he tried to use force against Jakati. Dravid was swimming in sweat in the Chennai heat and fell to a tiring shot, and not long after, the seamers returned to contain the flow further. A couple of fours from Ross Taylor was offset by a double-strike from Albie Morkel in the penultimate over, and Rajasthan only managed 61 in the last ten, losing six wickets.

The wicket of M Vijay was an early boost for Rajasthan but some sloppy fielding, a difficult opportunity that was grassed, and the maturity of the Raina-Hussey combine put paid to Rajasthan's hopes. Stuart Binny conceded eight runs in the field, through a misfield and an overthrow, and was listless with the ball. Raina was let off by Watson diving full stretch in the deep, but otherwise there weren't any opportunities.

Like the Chennai bowlers had done in the first ten overs, Rajasthan's attack erred in line and length, giving the batsmen timely opportunities to pierce the field. Siddharth Trivedi bowled too often down the leg side, and the more accurate Watson and Botha were worked around. With both batsmen settling in well, left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi was carted for two sixes in the 11th over - the same passage in the Rajasthan innings had marked a decisive turn of events. As the shoulders drooped, Binny doled freebies outside off which Hussey cut for successive fours before delivering the same treatment to Menaria on the leg side. Raina's dismissal was against the run of play, but his knock, along with Hussey's, had made a relatively one-sided contest out of a potential cracker.


Match Meter

RR
Dravid's shot of the innings: When he lofts Jakati over extra cover in the ninth over, Rajasthan are 69 without loss and on course for a big total

CSK RR
Spinners lead Chennai fightback Menaria and Botha fall in quick succession, and when Dravid holes out off a tired shot in the 16th over, Rajasthan are 117 for 4

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The double-strike: Morkel dismisses Rahane and Taylor off successive deliveries in the 19th over and by the end of the innings, Rajasthan have only managed 61 in the last ten.

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Nightmare in the field: Binny has an off day, conceding eight runs in the field in third and fourth overs through a misfield and an overthrow. The early pressure after Vijay's wicket is off Chennai

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Doshi targeted: Raina and Hussey crack two sixes and a four in the 11th over, and it's smooth sailing for the rest of the innings

Advantage Honours even

Deccan Chargers dropped too many catches in the first half of the game to allow Kolkata Knight Riders to motor along to 169, and then dropped intensity alarmingly in the chase to succumb to their sixth defeat in nine games. Yusuf Pathan was the biggest beneficiary of Deccan's fielding largesse, surviving three clangers to pummel his way to his highest score of the season. His assault yielded 47 off 26 balls, and he helped Kolkata double their score in the last eight overs in Manoj Tiwary's company.

Deccan's pursuit followed a similar template to their misfiring chase against Chennai: Sunny Sohal kept opening up the off side and swiping in hope and Shikhar Dhawan once again receded into a shell after starting with promise. As he has done regularly this season, Iqbal Abdulla made things happen, removing Sohal and Kumar Sangakkara in his second over with clever changes of pace. Cameron White then crawled listlessly as the chase slumped to a mid-innings comatose. Rajat Bhatia put White out of his misery in the 11th over, and the game was over as a contest when Daniel Christian was wrongly adjudged lbw three balls later. Dhawan tried to reignite Deccan's hopes, but the innings had meandered too far off course by then.

It seemed unlikely that Deccan would be chasing 170 when they limited Kolkata to 84 for 3 by the 12th over. Gautam Gambhir exited at that pivotal juncture, leaving two new batsmen to do a repair job. Deccan, however, simply refused to seize the moment. Pragyan Ojha kept attacking with flight, and Yusuf tried to break free by lofting over the leg side. He was beaten in the air, though, and Amit Mishra ran back at long-off to get under the mis-hit. Drop. In the next over, Mishra had Yusuf miscuing in the same direction, towards Christian. Another drop. The next ball was whacked with the turn over the extra-cover boundary, and Kolkata never looked back.

Sangakkara missed a trick by holding Dale Steyn's second spell back until the 16th over. Yusuf had got his eye in by then, and the fact that Tiwary faced that entire over did not help Deccan's cause. Tiwary looted two off-side fours off Steyn, before Yusuf thumped Ishant Sharma for a massive six over long-on. By the time Dhawan grassed Yusuf again in the 19th over, Deccan were in damage-control mode, and doing a poor job at it. Tiwary launched Christian for six more, before Yusuf fore-handed Ishant and whipped Steyn for boundaries to ensure Kolkata finished with a bang.

The start of Kolkata's innings was a dawdle by comparison, in spite of Eoin Morgan's innate energy at the crease. He nearly ran himself out first ball, and charged out to the third and dumped Christian over long-on for a six. Thereafter Jacques Kallis settled into accumulation mode. He checked in with a typically pristine set of boundaries, charming Steyn through the covers, before redirecting short balls from Ishant on either side of the wicket for fours.

Gambhir took charge after Christian foxed Morgan with a slow offcutter. Gambhir lofted his first ball emphatically over the covers for four, before slashing Ojha through point. His joust with Christian was the most captivating mini-battle of the session, and included a heaved pull for six, a drop, a collision and a heated exchange of words. Kolkata progressed to 73 in the first ten overs, and Deccan were in need of some inspiration. The spinners produced just that, with Mishra foxing Kallis in the flight and Ojha hoodwinking Gambhir, but the fielding was about to let them down big-time. Yusuf exacted full toll, and ensured it was another forgettable night for the Hyderabad supporters who have witnessed only one home win in three-and-a-half seasons.


Match Meter

KKR DC
Christian nails Morgan: Kolkata lose Eoin Morgan at 36 in the sixth over in a slow start

KKR DC
DC attack through spin: Ojha and Mishra manage to dismiss Gambhir and Kallis to reduce Kolkata to a dodgy 84 for 3 in the 12th over

KKR
Drop, drop, drop: Yusuf is put down by Mishra in the 13th over and Christian in the 14th over. He punishes Deccan before Dhawan clangs him again in the 19th

KKR
Abdulla strikes twice: Deccan's meandering chase derails early, when Abdulla removes Sohal and Sangakkara in the sixth over. They never recover.

Advantage Honours even

Five defeats at home have meant the Feroz Shah Kotla faithful have had little to cheer this season, and today was the bleakest day since Delhi Daredevils were routed by Mumbai Indians in their opening game. Two days after a Virender Sehwag special handed Kochi Tuskers Kerala a hiding, it was the turn of Mahela Jayawardene's men to outclass Delhi, snapping a three-game losing streak by cruising to victory with five overs to go.

The Kotla track has been everything from a batting beauty to a square turner this season, but though the pitch was neither of those extremes on Monday, Delhi's batsmen struggled to a sub-par total, and like generous hosts, their bowlers gave the visitors 18 extras to ease Kochi's path to victory.

Delhi's batting is hugely reliant on their two lethal hitters at the top of the order, Virender Sehwag and David Warner, and their early exits derailed their innings. Sehwag swatted a couple of fours in the first over, and greeted the debutant Prasanth Parameswaran with a brutal hit for six in the third over. Three balls later, though, Parameswaran had a moment to remember, getting Sehwag caught behind. And when Warner pulled Sreesanth to long-on, Delhi were down to 42 for 2.

It wasn't exactly vintage Twenty20 batting after that as Venugopal Rao and Yogesh Nagar put on the biggest stand of the innings at just over a-run-a-ball. There was a surprise bouncer down the leg side from the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, and a ball that bounced twice from Vinay Kumar and was swiped for four, but otherwise it was mostly sedate stuff.

The arrival of Travis Birt spiced up things as he chipped in with a series of innovative strokes, scoring virtually all his runs behind the wicket. The highlight of the innings was his angled glide for four through third man, after he went down on a knee and initially looked to paddle the ball.

Delhi's chances of winning hinged on keeping in tight and getting rid of the big names at the top of the Kochi batting early. Instead, Irfan Pathan sprayed five wides in the first over, and then gifted a boundary by slipping the ball down the leg side. Brendon McCullum then caned Morne Morkel for three fours in the next over, and the game was as good as over after Umesh Yadav's first over went for 23. There was a classic McCullum extra cover drive, a chest-high full toss that was unintentionally clipped for six, another short ball that was crashed for six more, before a muscled four through cover-point propelled Kochi to 53 for 0 after four overs.

The openers were dismissed soon after, but with the asking rate at 5 and the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Brad Hodge to come, the next half hour was mostly about completing the formalities. Jayawardene was needlessly run-out, before Parthiv Patel and Hodge killed off any Delhi dreams of a comeback with an unbroken 52-run stand.

The result leaves Delhi needing five wins in their remaining matches to reach the final four, and while Kochi moved up to eight points, their route to the semi-finals isn't straight-forward either.

Match Meter

KTK
Sehwag exits early: Debutant Prasanth Parameswaran gets Sehwag to nick to the keeper for 15 in the third over

KTK
Sreesanth strikes: In the sixth over, Warner is done in as he tries to pull a ball angling away from him, which ended up lobbing to mid-on

KTK
McCullum blazes: The first over from Umesh was lashed for 23, which meant Kochi were 53 for 0 after four overs

Advantage Honours even

If Sachin Tendulkar doesn't get you, Ambati Rayudu will. If Lasith Malinga doesn't get you, Harbhajan Singh will. Unfortunately for Kings XI Punjab, all four men were on top of their game today, and the rest of the Mumbai Indians XI was ruthlessly efficient. Tendulkar played within himself, Rayudu launched the occasional sortie and the middle order kept up the momentum to lift Mumbai to 159. It was a gettable target on this pitch, but not against this attack.

Harbhajan and Malinga cracked open the game in their opening spells. Harbhajan nailed Adam Gilchrist on the sweep in the opening over, before Malinga put Paul Valthaty in his place with an over of pace-bowling brilliance. He began with a full ball that was through Valthaty in a blink. The second was a swerving full toss at 144.5 kph that Valthaty barely managed to get bat to. The third was faster, and Valthaty nervously glanced to fine-leg, but he was back on strike for the last two. Malinga let him have two short balls; Valthaty did not pick the first one, and missed a feeble attempt at a pull off the second. Valthaty, clearly outclassed, was stunned into his shell and Punjab never recovered.

Tendulkar smelled blood, and went for all-out attack. Malinga bowled with two slips, while Harbhajan trotted in with a slip and a silly point. Valthaty continued to struggle, but Shaun Marsh managed to sneak a couple of boundaries off Malinga. Abu Nechim kept the pressure on Valthaty, who was so late on a pull in the fifth over that he ended up playing it uppishly to cover. Cover is not where a pull shot should go, neither is it the place for Munaf Patel to field: he grassed the catch, tumbling forward. Unfortunately for Punjab, that was the only fielding error from Mumbai.

After dawdling to 8 off his first 24 balls, Valthaty eventually found respite against the back-up bowlers. He carted T Suman and Andrew Symonds for sixes, but holed out soon after. Marsh was in his groove by then, charming a Munaf half-volley for four and clattering a half-tracker from Nechim to midwicket, but he needed someone to hold up the other end.

Mumbai ensured that did not happen: David Hussey was held spectacularly at long-on by Rohit Sharma, who hurtled forward and dived full-length. Dinesh Karthik was trapped in front by Kieron Pollard, and Abhishek Nayar allowed the entry 'c Symonds b Harbhajan' to enter the scorecard. Malinga tied up the loose ends in his second spell.

Earlier, Mumbai were efficient rather than excellent with the bat, as Punjab's spinners held them back in an attritional first half. Punjab were clearly looking to capitalise on Tendulkar's weakness against left-arm spin, when they opened the attack with Bhargav Bhatt. Bipul Sharma took over for the third over, and struck with his unusual trajectory from well wide of the crease. Davy Jacobs was lazy leaning out to one of those deliveries, and turned his wrists too early as the ball slipped through to hit the stumps. The early dismissal forced Mumbai to rebuild cautiously, and the left-arm gambit had paid off though Tendulkar hadn't fallen for it.

Rayudu attempted to break free with a couple of against-the-spin heaves, while Tendulkar skipped inside the line to sweep Bhatt over deep square leg, but Mumbai showed their first real sign of intent only in the 12th over of the innings. As always, Praveen Kumar was cannon fodder once the shine disappeared from the ball, and Rayudu clubbed him for two fours and a six off consecutive balls. Punjab did not help their own cause, dropping Rayudu twice in two balls. The second a comical error in judgement from Ryan Harris at long-off, that allowed Rayudu reach his half-century.

Rayudu and Tendulkar fell soon after getting to their half-centuries, but Pollard ensured there was no let-up, smashing two sixes and in the process increasing his tournament tally by a factor of five. His closing surge, aided by Rohit, took Mumbai to a score that Punjab would have fancied chasing, but Malinga and Co. had other plans.

Match Meter

KXIP
Bipul strikes: Bipul Sharma removes Davy Jacobs in the third over of the game, pegging Mumbai back early

KXIP MI
Rayudu hits back: After a slow recovery, Ambati Rayudu clobbers Praveen Kumar for two fours and a six off successive balls

KXIP MI
Punjab keep striking: Tendulkar and Rayudu perish unable to capitalise on their half-centuries, and Mumbai finish with 159

MI
Harbhajan nails Gilchrist: Gilchrist is caught in front in the first over from Harbhajan Singh to give Mumbai the ascendancy

MI
Malinga outclasses Valthaty: Paul Valthaty barely lays bat on ball as Lasith Malinga bombards him with pace. Neither Valthaty, nor Punjab recover

Advantage Honours even

It was a tale of contrasting performances from two Pune Warriors spinners. Rahul Sharma threatened to win it for them but Murali Kartik lost the plot and Rajasthan Royals' Ross Taylor seized the moment, with valuable support from Ajinkya Rahane, to clinch a thrilling win. Rajasthan moved to the top of the table while Pune stayed frozen at rock bottom.

With 52 runs required from six overs, Rahul bowled a gem of a maiden over that included the wicket of the aggressive Ashok Menaria to end his spell with figures of 4-1-13-3. However, Kartik gifted two short balls and a full toss in the next over and Taylor looted 17 runs with the help of two fours and a six. Suddenly, the equation came down to 29 from 18 and despite two relatively disciplined overs from Alphonso Thomas and Jerome Taylor, Rajasthan just needed the odd boundary here and there to squeeze past the line.

Two boundary hits from Rahane and Ross Taylor sealed the contest. When they needed 24 runs from 14 balls, Rahane sliced a slower length ball from Jerome Taylor to the point boundary and when they required 17 from 11, Ross Taylor slugged a length delivery from Thomas deep into the midwicket stands. Game over.

Pune will look back and rue the reprieve they offered Ross Taylor. When Rajasthan needed 32 from 20, Taylor, on 31 then, heaved Thomas to left of deep midwicket where Nathan McCullum did all the hard work to get there but couldn't hold on. He lunged out to take it but it bounced off his palms as he fell to the ground and bounded off his chest and right thigh.

It was that kind of night for Pune. Only Rahul sparkled with the ball and almost single-handedly pushed them to the cusp of victory. His evening changed with a long hop in his second over, the seventh of the innings. Rahul Dravid, who again failed to convert a start, pulled it back to him and Rahul started to choke the run-flow with a slew of bouncing top spinners. However, Kartik had a horror day, leaking 41 runs from his four overs.

Pune will also look back at their batting effort and wish if they could have done a bit more. The top order flattered to deceive. The contest of the afternoon was between Shane Warne and Robin Uthappa. It had an overload of skill, adrenaline, ego, canniness and a dash of foolhardiness. It lasted eight deliveries but it encapsulated everything that is good about Twenty20. It had an aggressive batsman intent on attack and an ambitious bowler focused on hunting down his prey. Throw in an umpire ready to brave ferocious appeals and rule on the side of conservatism, and you had a thoroughly entertaining package.

Uthappa unfurled the reverse-sweep and conventional sweep to collect two fours. Warne ripped a big leg break next, starting from just about leg stump - part of the ball was outside leg - and it beat the bat to strike the pad. It was the start of Warne's increasingly vocal tussle with the umpire Shavir Tarapore. He yelped out a huge appeal but Tarapore perhaps thought it pitched just outside leg and turned it down. Warne looped the next delivery on a length but Uthappa stretched forward to slog-sweep it over midwicket.

Three boundaries in four balls and the heat was well and truly on Warne, who responded with a front-of-hand skidder that landed on the line of leg stump and just about straightened to hit the pad. Warne screamed, Tarapore stayed frozen and Uthappa survived. Warne got the final delivery to skid on towards the leg stump, Uthappa was caught in a tangle and yet again, got stuck on the pad. Replays suggested it would have clipped leg stump but you could understand why the umpire didn't give it.

Warne removed himself from Tarapore's end and appeared at Simon Taufel's in the ninth over. Uthappa again reverse-swept the first ball to the boundary but Warne shortened the length off the next and got it to skid and bounce towards middle. Uthappa ended up top-edging the swat to the keeper. Uthappa's exit was sandwiched between the dismissals of Jesse Ryder, stumped off Johan Botha, and Yuvraj Singh, run out after he backed up too far at the non-striker's end, and it derailed the innings.

Sunny Sohal was like a millionaire spending the last night of his life in Las Vegas, but as it often happens in heist films, the casino owners withstood the brilliant early hand. Sohal's 30-ball 56, full of extravagant risks, had turned a formidable chase into a regulation one, but Chennai Super Kings waited for the final fatal risk before closing in on the rest to deny them the required 95 off 79 deliveries.

It was a night of madness, of silly dropped chances and missed run-outs, of Sohal's extraordinary stroke-play; but the class in the Chennai attack brought the decisive sanity. It was difficult, though, to keep one's wits when Sohal was going. It seemed he could do no wrong, even when he was like a deer in the headlights against bouncers from Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel. Twice he nearly shut his eyes hoping for the best, twice the ball found some part of the bat to fly over the keeper.

Sohal drove it home by making room often and lofting the pace bowlers over cover, and the spinners over long-on, cow corner and midwicket, wherever his arc took them. He hit six fours and four sixes in that spell of play. However, like an amateur gambler, he became too adventurous and tried three reverse-heaves off spin. Two he failed to connect, and the third took the stumps. At 71 for 1 in the seventh over, though, the situation called for sensible batting.

MS Dhoni let Shadab Jakati and Suraj Randiv go through a few quiet overs that resulted in Shikhar Dhawan's wicket. Jakati's effort of 2 for 23 allowed Dhoni to hold back his best overs. Bollinger, R Ashwin and Morkel could now bowl the last seven overs between them. Fifty-eight were required off those overs, and Deccan were still slight favourites.

Not for long. Morkel started the slide with a short ball that got Bharat Chipli's wicket. Ashwin followed it up with a three-run over. Forty-eight off 30 didn't sound quite that easy now. Kumar Sangakkara was forced to manufacture a flick over fine leg, and Bollinger hit the middle stump. Given the form Cameron White and JP Duminy are in, it was game over right there. And so it was as the duo duly holed out.

Deccan's effort in the field was almost a mirror reflection of their chase. On a surface as tired as the whole tournament, they stifled Chennai for the better part of their innings, but fielded poorly and bowled ordinarily at the death to let the hosts off the hook. Hussey enjoyed his fourth life in six IPL innings this year, Suresh Raina discovered two pleasantly surprising chances, and Morkel laid into gentle length balls in the 19th over to hurt Deccan.

White's 13 off 18 wasn't his first mistake of the night. He had dropped a sitter from Hussey. Had he taken that catch, Hussey would have been dismissed for 10, Pragyan Ojha would have got his second wicket in his first over, and Chennai would have been 19 for 2. As it usually happens - ask Kamran Akmal and friends for more - Hussey went on to make them pay with 36 more.

Harmeet Singh then proceeded to let Raina off, and he went from 25 off 21 to 59 off 35 when eventually caught after another life. There was some vengeful slog-sweeping and some leg-side bowling that helped his innings. Morkel, though, provided the exclamation to Deccan's horror effort in the field when he hit Ishant Sharma for three back-to-back sixes. That 21-run over in the end provided Chennai with the buffer to absorb Sohal's onslaught. And Morkel, with 3 for 38, played a significant part in the second half as well.

On a square turner, Kolkata Knight Riders out-spun Kings XI Punjab to move to become joint leaders on the points table, although the other team, Mumbai Indians, have a game in hand. Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan took the big wickets - Adam Gilchrist, Paul Valthaty and David Hussey - for 43 runs in eight overs, exploiting the conditions to the fullest. Eoin Morgan and Gautam Gambhir, two of the best players of spin on show tonight, made sure the chase was smooth.

It took Gambhir just the three overs to realise that there was no point offering the batsmen pace on this track. In fact it was a track where even medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia turned his slower legbreaks appreciably. Gambhir's fielders complemented their slow bowlers, Punjab's indecisive running compounded their woes. At 22 for 0 after three overs, Abdulla immediately started turning the ball at right angles. Valthaty succumbed to the pressure, hitting Yusuf straight to long-on. Gilchrist, pulled back from 18 off 14 to 26 off 26, looked to manufacture a pull off a length. This was the straighter delivery from Abdulla, and snuck through Gilchrist's legs.

Either side of Gilchrist's dismissal, Shaun Marsh and Abhishek Nayar were run out: Marsh caught ball-watching when hit on the pad, and Nayar slow off the blocks when trying a tight single. At 53 for 4 in the 10th over, Gambhir's captaincy shone through. He was not content with the early wickets. Almost every new batsman walked out to a slip and a silly point. Gambhir himself stayed under the helmet.

While the wickets didn't come, they always lurked around the corner. The cautious batsmen couldn't do much about the poor run-rate. Bhatia cannily played the role of the third spinner, dealing almost exclusively in slower legcutters. The 18 runs off his four overs included four overthrows.

A 33-run stabilising stand between Dinesh Karthik and Hussey threatened much, but Abdulla came back to end it in the 15th over. Three overs after he had survived a shout for a plumb lbw, Hussey was now given out to a delivery that could have perhaps slid down the leg side. Karthik nudged and swept his way to 42 off 42, but couldn't provide that final kick. Only 33 came off the last five overs, which meant that the run-rate never crossed six an over after it slipped under the mark in the seventh over.

It was a chase that could have easily gone wrong on a difficult track. Al least it threatened to when Jacques Kallis got out to the first ball of left-arm spin of Bhargav Bhatt, who opened the bowling. Morgan, however, took out whatever enthusiasm the Punjab side might have had. He judged lengths early, moved feet decisively, and his 15-ball 28 made sure there was no run-rate pressure on the rest.

Gambhir negated the spinners expertly, showing off his version of quick footwork. Perhaps because he is the captain, he was less flashy than Morgan. He relied on pressing forward, then waiting for the bowler to bowl short for a nudge into the leg side. If the bowler didn't pitch short, like Piyush Chawla tried, he chipped him well over the infield. With support forthcoming from Manoj Tiwary, the rest was an evening walk at Eden Gardens.