The Mongoose misses its mark
Plays of the day from the IPL game between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab in Chennai
Plays of the day from the IPL game between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab in Chennai
Ramesh Powar had the better of Matthew Hayden and his Mongoose•Associated Press
Where's your regular bat?
In the absence of regular captain, MS Dhoni, there's no doubt over who the
Chennai crowd's favourite player is. They were screaming 'Hayden, Hayden'
when he emerged for the pre-match warm-ups. When he walked out to bat, he
was greeted with similar chants, mixed with a few cries of 'Mongoose,
mongoose'. They didn't have to wait long to see the much-discussed bat; in
the second over Hayden signalled for it when he had a free-hit. To the
fans' disappointment, he didn't connect with a big swipe. Worse followed
in the Super Over, when the Mongoose's larger 'sweet spot' proved of
no use, as Hayden was bowled first ball.
The Chennai ripple
Fans at the IPL are generally a boisterous bunch, happy to roar their
approval even at a no-particular-reason bugle, and enthusiastic in
counting down the end of time-outs. The MC at the MA Chidambaram Stadium,
though, had a hard time getting a Mexican wave going. Around the 12th over
of the Punjab innings, he implored the spectators in stand D to stand up
and wave to no effect. At his repeated cajoling, a few fans desultorily
got to their feet, prompting desperate cries of 'Pass it on, pass it on,'
from the MC, but the wave was still-born. Halfway through the chase,
however, at no one's prompting, a Mexican wave started rolling around the
stadium as the home team seemed headed for a straightforward win.
How about that one?
In the ninth over of the chase Ramesh Powar was convinced he had Hayden
lbw, though the massive appeal was turned down by the umpire because the
ball pitched outside leg. Off the very next delivery, he tricked a
charging Hayden by pitching the ball a little shorter, and the ball
crashed into off stump. Before launching into his celebrations though,
Powar made a tongue-in-cheek appeal to ask the umpire whether that was
good enough to be adjudged out.
A botched celebration
While Chennai looked to be coasting towards victory for much of the chase,
it started to get a little tense towards the end. Parthiv Patel's square-driven
four on the first ball off the 18th over provided some relief for the home
team, but he was stumped off Piyush Chawla on the next delivery. Punjab
were back in the game, and Chawla got set for his trademark send-off - get
down on one knee and scream while forcefully punching the air with a
clenched fist. However, as he bent down to start his celebration, his foot
slipped and he ended up on his backside.
Multi-skilled players?
Bowlers are becoming increasing adept with their footwork. Over the past
month, both Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard ran out Zimbabwean batsmen by
kicking the ball onto the stumps with their left foot during their
follow-through. While the West Indian allrounders needed angled shots to
hit the target, Juan Theron had a far simpler goalmouth tap-in; with three
stumps to aim at, his right-footed the ball onto the wicket to send back
Suresh Raina.
Second-time lucky
Chennai have been one of the better fielding outfits in the IPL, and apart
from Manpreet Gony's drop, Raina's team was sharp in the field again, with
the captain showing the way. In the 19th over, Raina just missed a direct
hit from cover to run-out Yuvraj Singh but made amends by knocking down
the stumps from a similar position in the final over to dismiss Theron for
a golden duck.
On the ball
Hayden and Parthiv had played steadily for the first three overs,
after which the Australian decided to open up. He launched a Powar
delivery towards long-off but didn't hit it as well as he would have
liked. The fielder on the boundary, Mohammad Kaif, was so focused on
taking the catch that he lost track of where the rope was, and ended up
tripping over it and fell over as he back-pedalled. The ball just
cleared the boundary.
Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo