Final - Deccan Chargers win IPL 2 in South Africa

The heart pounded the chest relentlessly – from the time Anil Kumble bowled Adam Gilchrist to long after the entire Deccan Chargers dug out raced to the middle to celebrate a fairytale victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in DLF Indian Premier League final on Sunday. It was a night when the Deccan Chargers refused to be tamed the Bull Ring.

The heart sought to gloss over Herschelle Gibbs's effort – painstaking and scratchy for the most past – when Deccan Chargers batted first. He finished with 53 not out off 48 balls. But the mind reminded the heart that it was perhaps the single most significant batting effort on a sluggish track in the grand final. Deccan Chargers ended up with 143 for six in 20 overs.

The heart cringed a bit when the vastly experienced Andrew Symonds chatted up Royal Challengers Bangalore young opener Manish Pandey but it also knew that the teenager will have grown up considerably. Pandey, of course, heard more of Symonds and faced the attack less as had got to play but seven deliveries before being dismissed by Pragyan Ojha.

Ojha took a leaf out of Kumble's book, put his hand up for his team and finished with three for 28 to play the lead role in Deccan Chargers' spectacular defence of the low score. Of course there were others who made it work for the team that drew on the twin fuels of hunger and self-belief as they pursued their goal with single-mindedness.

Richard Harris starting the proceedings with a maiden over to Jacques Kallis; little-known Punjab fast medium bowler Harmeet Singh showing character under pressure and claiming two for 23; Andrew Symonds returning to scalp the dangerous Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli; RP Singh conjuring Kallis' dismissal and finishing with 4-0-16-1.

There was more. A spectacular catch by Harmeet Singh, who sprinted from long leg and lunged forward to get his hands under the skyer to dismiss a defiant Vinay Kumar in the 19th over. Gilchrist himself contributed with two wonderful stumping dismissals to curtain the innings of Roelof van der Merwe and Kohli.

The sum of such wonderful parts was beautiful. And the heart

Then again, it was hard for the heart not to reach to the gallant Anil Kumble. It is not often that a man does everything he could possibly do – bowl with the new ball and claim Adam Gilchrist, come back to pick up the wickets of Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma at critical junctures – and end up having to watch his team fall short by six runs.

Two teams that had finished eighth and seventh last season fought every inch and one had to run out winner at the end of a stunning game that climaxed a wonderful tournament. Believe me, the heart hasn't stop pounding through the writing of this piece; the words flowed even as a spectacular closing ceremony that followed such a breathtaking match.

Semi Final II - Royal Challengers defeats lacklustre Chennai Super Kings

Last things first. Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers, placed at the bottom last year, will face each other in the IPL final tomorrow. And lightning does strike twice. Ask Chennai Super Kings. They had shot under by setting Bangalore 147, but would have thought of it as a fighting total. Manish Pandey, who came out of nowhere and scored a century in the last game, didn't think so. His 35-ball 48 almost killed the chase, and a minor hiccup later Bangalore were in the final.

If anything this was an even better innings in terms of the quality of strokeplay and this being a knockout match. Pandey got going with a square-drive in the first over, following a ball both wide and full. As if to show it was no fluke, he brought out a more classical square-drive, down on one knee, to the next delivery. Jacques Kallis matched that start with back-to-back square-cuts of equal ferocity and beauty in the second over.

But within seven deliveries Bangalore lost Kallis and Roelof van der Merwe. To pull them out of the shock Pandey produced boundaries with a back-foot punch and a drive on the run in two deliveries in the fourth over. Out of habit the slogs came out in the next two overs, but he cleared the leg-side field with them. By the end of the Powerplays Pandey had reached 29 off 14 deliveries with the help of six fours, four of them along the ground, and Bangalore needed only 88 from 84.

Pandey had batting with him the best man possible, Rahul Dravid, whose classical strokeplay and superb planning had a calming effect on the 19-year-old at the other end. His straight-drive off Shadab Jakati and flick off Albie Morkel were shots as good as any played in the night. The key moment was always going to be when Muttiah Muralitharan, held back by MS Dhoni, came on to bowl.

Murali started off with a big lbw shout against Pandey, and after that Dravid made a conscious effort of keeping the youngster away from the fox. Pandey finally fell when he went to slog-sweep the other spinner, Jakati, and a turnaround was in the offing. Fifty-three were required in 45 balls then, and Dravid seemed to have it under control until Murali came back and got him lbw in the 16th over. After an asphyxiating over, Bangalore required 35 off four overs.

Chennai needed a gamble then, after all other bowlers had been taken for runs. Suresh Raina bowled the next over, and both Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli took a six off him. The decisive, and the most symbolic, blow came in the next over when Kohli read a doosra, stepped out to Murali, and hit him straight down the ground for a big six. Bangalore's fifth win in a row was all but sealed.

The win, though, looked far away when Parthiv Patel stunned them after they had put Chennai in. The whole talk before the semi-final centered around the orange cap holder Mathew Hayden and whether he would be back for the big match. But Bangalore were hit from an unexpected quarter. It's not often you go about outscoring Hayden in good form, and if you do you better be playing exceptionally. That's precisely what Parthiv did for a brief while.

Parthiv was attacked with short bowling, but he brought out the pulls, the cuts, and the upper-cuts. In the first six overs Chennai raced away to 52, and Hayden hadn't even warmed up by then. In fact Parthiv had reached 32 off 20 deliveries, while Hayden was still 13. What odds would punters get for that?

But Anil Kumble and Bangalore regrouped fast. Smart bowling changes and smart bowling thereafter kept pulling Chennai back whenever they threatened to move too far out of reach. The result? A late assault never came. It was Kumble, who brought some control to the proceedings, coming in to bowl the sixth over. And then when Hayden went for one six too many off R Vinay Kumar and mis-hit to long-on, Kumble seized the opportunity.

He brought back Kallis, whose first two overs had cost 21. With his fourth delivery Kallis removed Parthiv, and Bangalore could now try and rein in the two new batsmen.

The new batsmen were Dhoni and Raina, in that order. There was a period of quiet around the time-out, and Kallis went for five in his next two overs. Just when Raina looked like opening up, with a four and a six off Vinay, Kumble brought back Praveen in the 15th over. With the first ball, Praveen got Raina to sky a slower ball, and Bangalore had once again prevented Chennai from getting away.

Again, when Morkel slogged Kumble for a six after 23 balls without a boundary, van der Merwe got Dhoni, caught at long-on. Dhoni's move to come in at No. 3 didn't work: he didn't hit any boundaries in his 30-ball 28.

Kumble handed over India's Test captaincy to Dhoni but today he had managed to outfox his younger counterpart.

Semi Final - I : Delhi Daredevils blown by hurricane called Adam Gilchrist

Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist lit up the night with his boyish enthusiasm and glowing brightness long before the fireworks went off around SuperSport Park at the end of the semifinal of the DLF Indian Premier League here on Friday. His 35-ball knock of 85 runs (10 fours and five sixes) will stay etched in the minds of all those who were privileged to watch it here or from the comfort of their drawing rooms or on their computers.

It seemed he had single-handedly powered his team into Sunday’s final with a six-wicket win over the fancied Delhi Daredevils. But the truth is that his bowlers had done well to stop Delhi Daredevils at 153 for eight in 20 overs after Virender Sehwag and Tillekeratne Dilshan took the team batting first to 83 for two in 10 overs.

Sehwag's fall in the 11th over slowed things down for Delhi Daredevils and men like Dilshan - who batted like a dream when Sehwag was around -- AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik were unable to make much headway in the second half of their innings. After Andrew Symonds trapped Sehwag in front, bowlers like rookie Harmeet Singh and Rohit Sharma did well to pull the game back decisively for Deccan Chargers.

Delhi Daredevils had come back so strongly after losing openers Gautam Gambhir and David Warner to Ryan Harris, who bent his back and generated extra bounce, in the first over. But for a side that was expected to top the 180-run mark and put the match beyond Deccan Chargers, Dilshan, de Villiers, Karthik and the others were unable to justify the favouritsm.

Chasing a total that was at least 25 runs less that most would have expected, Deccan Chargers – nay, Adam Gilchrist – walked out with purpose. He hit five successive boundaries off a hapless Dirk Nannes in the opening over to regale the fans and leave Delhi Daredevils bewildered. Captain Sehwag did all he could to stop the Gilchrst show from running for long but in vain.

When Dilshan bowled a good first over, Sehwag was motivated to try his own off-spin but Gilchrist delighted in taking 25 runs, including three sixes in-a-row, off the only over that the Delhi Daredevils captain bowled in the tournament. Deccan Chargers were 84 for one at the end of the over, Gilchrist himself having scored 74 of those runs in an amazing exhibition of hitting.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra bowled four splendid overs, first to end Azhar Bilakhia's status as the most privileged spectator in the ground andthen to end the mayhem caused by Gilchrsit before the strategic break. He returned to tie the other batsmen down and get the strokeful Andrew Symonds out but Gilchrist had done too much damage to the Delhi Daredevils cause.

With Tirumalasetty Suman picking up the runs, Deccan Chargers’ vice-captain Rohit Sharma played a quiet, guiding role at the end. He ensured that Deccan Chargers would not crumble under pressure on the home stretch as they had done quite a few times earlier in the tournament. Not on a night when Hurricane Adam had uprooted Delhi Daredevils.

Yet, when they head home on an earlier flight than they would have liked, it is possible that Delhi Daredevils think of how Gambhir was frustrated by a new ball bowler with a series of dot balls and eventually threw his wicket away in IPL semifinal for the second year running. And the tournament's most consistent and balanced squad fell short of the final again.

Bangalore Peaking at the right time

Manish Pandey will not need a visiting card in a hurry. So what if he is only 19 years old? So what if he did not get to play too many games for India when it won the World Cup for Youth (under-19) last year? On Thursday, he became the first Indian to score a century in the history of the DLF Indian Premier League and set up a 12-run victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore over Deccan Chargers in the race for the third spot in the league table.

Turning out in only his third game for Royal Challengers Bangalore and entrusted with the task of opening the innings along with Jacques Kallis, Pandey set the SuperSport Park alive in making an unbeaten 114 off just 73 balls (10 fours, four sixes). Glowing with confidence after he was dropped when on 2, Pandey caned the Deccan Chargers attack.

His assault on Tirumalasetty Suman in th 11th over was decisive. He struck him for two sixes as he picked up 18 runs in the over. And his attack against Purple Cap holder RP Singh was spectacular in its fearlessness and breathtaking in its execution. He scored 20 runs off nine balls that he faced from RP Singh.

Roelef van der Merwe, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor and Virat Kolhi were privileged spectators from across the pitch as Pandey - who idolises Matthew Hayden's strokeplay - dominated their partnerships. Kohli joined the party by helping Pandey take 22 runs off RP Singh’s final over and rubbing it in for the bowler who had dropped the teenager in the third over of the day.

That final over helped Royal Challengers make a powerful finish and make a daunting total of 170 for three. It was always going to be tough for Deccan Chargers to chase that down, even if Herschelle Gibbs batted like a man in a hurry, blazing away at the start. But with no other batsman complementing his knock of 60, Deccan Chargers were only playing catch up.

Andrew Symonds's dismissal, bowled by a van der Merwe armer for 18 and Rohit Sharma's fall to a catch in the deep off Kumble meant that Deccan Chargers had to settle to be second best on Thursday night, take the fourth place ahead of Kings XI Punjab with a better net run rate and get ready to take on the favourites Delhi Daredevils in the first semifinal here on Friday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, who took the third place after another win in a high-pressure game, will have a day’s rest before locking horns with last year’s finalist Chennai Super Kings in Johannesburg on Saturday. One young man answering to the name of Manish Pandey ensured that with an amazing knock.

Daredevils has it easy against Mumbai

Barring a late scare by Harbhajan Singh , who took 4 for 17, the Delhi Daredevils go into the semi-final with a confidence boosting 4-wicket win against the Mumbai Indians. At the toss Virender Sehwag said he wanted to field to give his side some much needed practice chasing. And a fair bit of practice they got, with Sehwag leading the power-hitting top order who stayed ahead of the fairly steep required run-rate.

Gautam Gambhir and David Warner, Delhi's openers, blitzed to 30 in the first three overs. It started from the sixth ball of the first over. Lasith Malinga found bounce and bowled over 140kph but Gambhir picked his slower bouncer and pulled it for four to square leg. Then Gambhir and Warner hit 22 off the next 12 balls. Gambhir walked out and hit Dhawal Kulkarni for a four behind square leg before lifting a fuller one down the ground for another boundary.

Rahil Shaikh began his IPL campaign with a high full toss that Warner pulled to midwicket boundary before being picked for another in the same area by Gambhir. Warner lofted Kulkarni for a six over long-on but then top-edged one and ended up losing his wicket and his bat. But Delhi couldn't afford to slow down, needing over seven an over. Not that they would slow down when Sehwag joined Gambhir at the crease. Kulkarni was the one to suffer as Sehwag scored boundaries off whatever length he bowled. He gave away 36 in three overs.

Harbhajan came on at the end of the Powerplays with Delhi at 60 for 1. He kept it tight by mixing flighted deliveries with flatter and sharper ones but it didn't help as Sehwag and Gambhir instead picked the boundaries from the other end. Gambhir played Abhishek Nayar's shorter deliveries to the fine leg and midwicket boundaries while Sehwag hit a half-volley over the bowler's head for a six. After ten overs Delhi were 93 for 1 in contrast to Mumbai, who were 72 for 3 at the same stage.

Gambhir finally fell in the 12th over, again walking down the track but mistiming a loft to a diving Mohammad Ashraful at third man. But by then the required run-rate had come down to under seven an over, mostly owing to the wides conceded by Sanath Jayasuriya. Tillakaratne Dilshan waited only two balls before going for the big shot. He hooked a slower ball by Malinga to deep backward square leg for six. Jayasuriya further pulled down the asking rate to less than six, this time owing to Sehwag who made room to hit him for four over extra cover and a six over long-on. Dilshan stuck into Malinga in the next and overs 12 to 14 cost Mumbai a whopping 39. Sehwag got his fifty immediately after that but the two batsmen fell off successive balls to Harbhajan.

There were some tense moments for Delhi after that. Harbhajan gave away only three and JP Duminy two. Harbhajan came back to pick up AB de Villiers and Rajat Bhatia off successive balls as well. de Villiers was caught at midwicket trying to flick him for a six and Bhatia misread an offbreak and was bowled for 2. At the end of that over, Delhi needed 12 off 18, with four wickets in hand. Amit Mishra ensured they needed only three of those balls, hitting Duminy for a six and a four, and Mumbai ended their IPL campaign at No.7, after having being a semi-final contender at one point.

However their batsmen, led by Ajinkya Rahane, had given them a chance to end on a positive note. Rahane began attacking after the Powerplay overs and added 73 with Sachin Tendulkar. Bhatia, bowling his slow-medium stuff, had sent down four tight balls and a wide before Tendulkar messed up the over with two beautifully executed fours. He late-cut the first to the third-man boundary and drove the next straight past the bowler to long-on. After the strategy break, the two took advantage of Mishra's poor length and scored 15 off his third over. Even after Tendulkar fell, Rahane kept the scoreboard ticking and got to his second half-century of the season from 37 balls. Mumbai scored 56 off the last five overs but Delhi's batsmen came in to form and spoiled their farewell.

Mesmerising Murali say good bye to Punjab

Mooraaleee! The announcer led the chant through the PA at the Kingsmead Stadium as the mesmerising contortionist lured Punjab's top scorer Luke Pomersbach into a fatal lunge. That 26 was Punjab's highest score told a tale of devastation by the spinners, especially by Muttiah Muralitharan.

The little big moment of the match came at the toss. MS Dhoni has, through this tournament, used the opportunity afforded by the toss - which is broadcast around the ground - to throw challenges to the opposition in the past; today, he turned the heat on his bowlers. He didn't need much prodding to talk about their failure and spoke at length about how his batsmen have shouldered the burden but the bowlers have let the team down. However, he ended that rather public flogging on a note of support, saying he was sure his bowlers would stand up this time. They did. The batsmen failed for once but the spinners saved the day.

Muralitharan came on within the Powerplays, something he rarely does while playing for Sri Lanka, and dipped into his bag of tricks. The score at the time read 25 for 1 in four overs, Punjab chasing a meagre 117. Everyone knows what he can do but not many know how best to respond. Shane Warne's fans have always believed their hero has more guile; Warne, they argue, thinks out batsmen more than Murali does. Murali, they say, uses the mysterious mode of delivery as his main weapon.

Well, he'd be a fool if he didn't. When you have an action that can throw people off and when you have deliveries that can spin big either way and which many batsmen seem unable to pick, your first attempt would be to strike with the mystery. If they survive it, Murali then changes his gameplan. He will toy with the lesser batsmen but, with the top-order, you can see the brain cooking up devious plans. As he showed again today.

Simon Katich, who likes to shuffle towards off even against the spinners, was sorted out round his legs. Pomersbach was harassed with the doosras before being packed off with a dipping, sharply turning off break. Pomersbach lunged - and so did Raina at first slip to collect the ball. By the end his figures read 4-0-8-2. With the pitch taking sharp turn, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin too chipped in with vital wickets to send Punjab out of the tournament.

Raina the offspinner has been a revelation. Against Punjab in the earlier round, he came on at the death to kill a spirited chase. Today, he had to ensure that he completed the job started by Murali. He has a nice side-on action with the ability to delay the release by that crucial extra second that allows him to spot the batsmen's intent. He took out Yuvraj, who was looking for the big hit, with a skidding delivery that came in. It was the killer blow. Punjab never recovered.

Knight Riders sends out the Champion from IPL

The much-ridiculed underdogs of this year, Kolkata Knight Riders, have ended the tournament for the original underdogs, but not before they almost made a mess of the chase. Laxmi Shukla was the saviour for Kolkata, after they had stumbled to 45 for 6 in 11.3 overs. They had Charl Langeveldt to thank as well for pinning down Rajasthan Royals, and his 3 for 15 exposed Kolkata's blunder of not playing him throughout the tournament.

The lesson to learn was not to write off Rajasthan till the end. Not even when they are defending just 101 in a must-win game. At the half-way mark, after a frenzied innings during which they added just 79 to the 22 they got from the first over, the tournament seemed all over for Rajasthan. One final twist remained.

Even that seemed to be flattening out soon after Brendon McCullum hit two boundaries off the first two balls of the chase. The final figures of Munaf Patel after those two fours, 4-0-14-2, epitomised the comeback.

Munaf got Sourav Ganguly in that first over, and Amit Singh sent back McCullum with the first ball he bowled from the other end. That was the piece of fortune Rajasthan needed, as the half-tracker rose only as high as McCullum's knees. On a cracking pitch, Shane Warne's innovative field placings, and smart bowling by his bowlers worked superbly after that. Even Brad Hodge and David Hussey, the pair who was key during Kolkata's chase of 189 against Chennai Super Kings, found it extremely difficult to score.

Naman Ojha did superbly to dismiss Brad Hodge, who looked to run after dropping Johan Botha's first delivery at his feet. He had barely taken a step, but couldn't make his way back. More pressure and smart bowling followed. Botha and Warne followed the first seven-over spell of 30 runs by the medium-pacers with a five-over spell of 17. And wickets fell consistently throughout.

Hussey got a top-edge thanks to Botha's extra bounce, and Shoaib Shaikh ran himself out. But when Shukla, was dropped on 6 off a Warne flipper by Ojha, the final turnaround started.

Shukla batted sensibly, choosing well when to go bog, and when to accumulate. He knew he needed only two or three big hits, which would be enough to set the cat among the pigeons. His first break came when he went after Warne in the 13th over, and cleared the wide long-on boundary easily.

His next assault came in Ravindra Jadeja's second over, the 16th of the innings. Shukla went over extra cover first ball, and managed three more couples through that over. It was indeed a tough match for Jadeja, who was involved in two run-outs, failed to make up for those run-outs, and then bowled one over too many.

Shukla's turnaround finished as it started, with some luck from behind the wicket, as Ojha missed on two run-out opportunities as Shukla and Ajit Agarkar stole two byes in the 19th and 20th overs, with five and four still required respectively.

Spare a thought for Ojha, though. Apart from that brilliant run-out of Hodge's earlier in the piece, Ojha had got Rajasthan off to the best start a team could have imagined. It was Hodge who suffered at his hands then too. He slogged and lofted Hodge's first over to take 22, the most expensive first over of the tournament. But as he had Shukla to spoil his good work in the second innings, there was Langeveldt in the first.

How fitting it was that when Langeveldt finally got a game he was not given the first over. But the first ball Langeveldt bowled was a bouncer that hurried Rob Quiney up, got the top edge and nestled in wicketkeeper Shoaib Shaikh's gloves. The extra pace and bounce was obvious and the away movement lethal. In his next over, Langeveldt removed Ojha, with one that kicked off from just back of a length, and moved away too. In between these two strikes, Swapnil Asnodkar ran himself out when going for a single. From 22 for no loss, Rajasthan had slid to 28 for 3 in 15 balls.

Kolkata then hustled Rajasthan with quick bowling and athletic fielding. When Langeveldt came back to remove Niraj Patel's wicket, Rajasthan had stumbled to 62 for 5 at the half-way stage. Two disastrous run-outs followed. When Yusuf Pathan dug a yorker out, Jadeja called him for one, then realised the ball had traveled too fast towards Shukla, the bowler. Jadeja didn't go through, and the most dangerous batsman in the team was left stranded. Jadeja's face told a story of guilt. Three balls later, when Jadeja called Tyron Henderson for a quick single, he found to his horror that Henderson was too slow, and that Hussey had hit the stumps direct.

None of Dinda, Agarkar, Sourav Sarkar or Shukla provided Rajasthan any respite later, and the last 3.4 overs got Rajasthan only nine runs. The last over, from Agarkar, went for 21 less than the first.

Bangalore give Delhi taste of their own medicine

You have come to associate and expect clinical performance in matches featuring the DLF Indian Premier League table leaders Delhi Daredevils. On Tuesday, however, Delhi Daredevils were treated to a dose of their own medicine by Royal Challengers Bangalore, who took a confident step toward semifinal qualification, at the Wanderers here.

The seven-wicket win catapulted Royal Challengers Bangalore to the fourth spot in the league table behind Delhi (18 points), Chennai Super Kings (15) and Deccan Chargers (14). Of course, Royal Challengers Bangalore also have 14 points but are fourth with an inferior net run rate. But they are ahead of Kings XI Punjab (14 points) and Rajasthan Royals (13 points).

On a day when Delhi Daredevils rested their lead performers like Tillekeratne Dilshan, Amit Mishra and Dirk Nannes, Royal Challengers Bangalore new ball bowler Praveen Kumar inflicted another failure on skipper Virender Sehwag by having him caught at square-leg in the first over. Praveen Kumar then surprised Mithin Manhas with a slow bouncer and got him out too.

Jacques Kallis bowled his four overs on the trot very economically and picked up Gautam Gambhir's wicket and Anil Kumble turned another great effort with the ball. Without Dilshan’s inspirational presence - and with AB de Villiers playing more aggressively than usual, it was clear that Delhi Daredevils' lower middle-order would come under scrutiny for the first time.

And that did not come through well as the side made 134 for seven, at least 20 runs below par. It meant that the table toppers would have to take early wickets and have their spinners, especially Daniel Vettori be on top of their game, Ashish Nehra did scalp Robin Uthappa in his first over to inject excitement but Kallis and Rahul Dravid and then Ross Taylor took the game away.

Kallis made 58 not out (56 balls, two fours, two sixes) and Dravid 38 (34 balls, four fours) in sharing a 70-run stand while it was Taylor’s big hitting fetched him 25 runs off 12 balls (one four, three sixes) that spurred Royal Challenger Bangalore towards such a facile win that has usually been the prerogative of Delhi Daredevils.

The fact that Royal Challengers Bangalore had one over to spare helped them improve their net run rate to -0.253, better than Kings XI Punjab's -0.423 but both are behind Deccan Chargers’ NRR of +0.265. That has left Kings XI Punjab with no option but to beat Chennai Super Kings in the final match to edge ahead in the semifinal race.

Knight Riders stuns Chennai

At long last, a win and in a fairytale chase at that. After having wondered how long the roll of the dice would go against them, stunning knocks by skipper Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge let Kolkata Knight Riders pinch a seven-wicket victory off the last ball of their DLF Indian Premier League match against Chennai Super Kings here on Monday.

Chasing a tall 189-run target - the second highest score in IPL 2009 - Knight Riders set off in relentless pursuit with McCullum and Hodge believing that they could end the string of defeats. McCullum spared no bowler as he took upon himself the task of spurring the team along on the road to victory. Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni searched in vain for ways to stop him.

Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was a veritable picture of mastery of his craft as he bowled four overs for 16 runs but paceman Albie Morkel, Sudeep Tyagi and L Balaji were prodigal on Monday night.

McCcullum smashed 81 off 48 balls (11 fours, three sixes) while Sourav Ganguly fell cheaply and Hodge played himself in during their 90-run second-wicket stand. He was particularly severe on Sudeep Tyagi, one of Chennai Super Kings’ most efficient bowlers, striking him for four successive fours and a six in one over to power Kolkata Knight Riders' chase.

Hodge (71 not out, 44 balls, four fours, four sixes) took charge after McCullum was bowled by Shadab Jakati and waded into L Balaji, Chennai Super Kings' death over specialist. Hodge added 56 runs off 28 balls with Wriddhiman Saha (25 13 balls, two fours and a six), to see the side home in a nerve-wracking finish when Suresh Raina very nearly bowled a magical final over.

Earlier, Raina top-scored for Chennai Super Kings with a half-century that lifted him to fourth place in the list of run scorers in IPL 2009 behind Matthew Hayden, AB de Villiers and Adam Gilchrist. He shared a breezy 74-run stand with Mahendra Singh Dhoni who made an unbeaten 40 to make sure that Chennai Super Kings would nor rue the decision to rest Hayden.

The victory salvaged some pride for Kolkata Knight Riders who were frustrated in several close contests from the time they were beaten in a Super Over by Rajasthan Royals in Cape Town in the second week of the tournament. The defeat will make Chennai Super Kings fret over not having sealed the second semifinal place behind Delhi Daredevils.

Of course, with a superior net run rate, Chennai Super Kings would make it to the semifinals even if they lose narrowly to Kings XI Punjab in their last league game but there is one highly improbable scenario that can worry them.

If they lose to Kings XI Punjab, they will finish with 15 points while Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab (16 points), Deccan Chargers or Royal Challengers Bangalore (16 points) can be ahead. Rajasthan Royals can edge ahead of Chennai Super Kings with a massive win over Kolkata Knight Riders and have a better net run rate. But at the moment, Chennai Super Kings are way ahead on that count.

Delhi clinicalcally puts Rajasthan in a spot of bother for last 4

Delhi Daredevils were back to their clinical, remorseless ways as they consolidated their position at the top of the DLF Indian Premier League with a 14-run win against defending champions Rajasthan Royals. This victory came on the heels of a tight game against Deccan Chargers and a shocking loss to Kings XI Punjab.

With 18 points from 12 games and with matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians on hand, Delhi Daredevils look set to retain the top position, going into the semifinal stage. Rajasthan Royals, who rued a 25-run over at the end of Delhi Daredevils innings, face a stiff task in the race for a spot in the last four.

Opting to bat first, Delhi Daredevils posted a challenging total of 150, thanks to the third wicket firm of AB de Villiers (79 not out, 55 balls) and Tillekeratne Dilshan (33, 41 balls) and their 87-run stand that helped the team recover from losing openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in Munaf Patel's second over.

De Villiers was superb as he paced his innings to a nicety, settling in at a critical stage and then opening his shoulders. The manner in which he found gaps in the field was amazing and left the Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne scratching his head, wondering how to curb the in-form batsman.

Dinesh Karthik played his now familiar finisher's role to perfection and shared an unbroken 48-run stand with de Villiers. The runs in their partnership came off just 20 deliveries, including the 25-run over off hapless Munaf Patel. It hurried Delhi Daredevils past the 140-run mark that they set fro themselves.

Rajasthan Royals's chase of the 151-run target depended on how well they could start against the new ball pair of Ashish Nehra Dirk Nannes. The bowlers accounted for one opener each, Avishkar Salvi taking a great catch on the second attempt at square third man to see Graeme Smith's back in the second over and Nannes himself taking a superb overhead catch at fine leg to ensure Rob Quiney's dismissal.

It was an uphill battle for Rajasthan Royals after that with leg-.spinner Amit Mishra claiming three wickets in his four overs. Towards the end of a lost cause, Munaf Patel provided some entertainment by making the second highest score by a No. 11 batsman in the history of Twenty20 cricket.

Rajasthan Royals have a game against Kolkata Knight Riders in Durban on Wednesday and will be hoping to win two points from that game to stay in the frame when the third and fourth semifinalists are spotted.

Kings XI still in contention with a win

Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh backed himself at a decisive moment in the match, claimed a hat-trick, kept his cool under pressure in the death over to stop Rohit Sharma from pinching a second fairytale victory in two days in the DLF Indian Premier League here on Sunday.

Yuvraj Singh’s second hat-trick of the tournament, straddling two overs, saw him claim the wickets of Herscelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao to star in his team’s successful defence of their below-par score of 134 for seven in 20 overs. Of course, Irfan Pathan emerged hero too by bowling Rohit Sharma with a slower one in the final over.

The result allowed Kings XI Punjab stay in the hunt for a semifinal place with 14 points from 13 matches, the same as Deccan Chargers. Kings XI Punjab have a game on hand against Chennai Super Kings (May 20) while Deccan Chargers’s final game will be against Royal Challengers Bangalore (May 21).

Rohit Sharma made 42 off 26 balls (three fours and three sixes) to pull Deccan Chargers back in the game after Romesh Powar’s double strike in the fifth over and Yuvraj Singh’s hat-trick spread over the 12th and 14th overs allowed Kings XI Punjab to breathe easy. But an expensive 18th over by Wilkin Mota – 18 runs – saw the game swing back in Deccan Chargers’ favour.

Deccan Chargers, who had lost seven wickets in a heap and the match against Delhi Daredevils, went through the same emotions again. Needing to get three off the final ball to tie the scores, Ryan Harris struck Irfan Pathan to sweeper cover and settled to take two and had his back to the teenager Jaskaran Singh who was sprinting down the track for the third run.

Earlier, a workmanlike 56 by the never say die Kumar Sangakkara helped Kings XI Punjab make 134.The next highest score was 20 by Yuvraj Singh and Kings XI Punjab was left to pray that its bowlers and fielders would pull the rabbit out of the hat one more time.

Deccan makes their semi-final hopes brighter

The commitment to the team's cause gleamed in his eyes. Rohit Sharma knew he was up against a stiff challenge – 21 runs off the final over is an never easy challenge – but he knew that his team Deccan Chargers needed to clinch the two points from Kolkata Knight Riders and accomplished that in stunning style on Saturday.

It looked like a lost cause in two overs after Andrew Symonds was run out at the start of the 18th over with 33 of the 161-run target needed. For, Mashrafe Mortaza – playing his first IPL game – and Ajit Agarkar did not give away any boundaries to Rohit Sharma and the new man Venugopal Rao. In fact, Mortaza gave away seven runs and Agarkar six.

Deccan Chargers needed a whopping 21 runs to win in the final over. Kolkata Knight Riders chose Mortaza for the task - and did not have time to regret it. A powerful pull for four off the first ball, declared a no-ball as there were just three fielders in the 30-yard circle, infused hope in the Deccan Chargers ranks.

Their hearts sank when Rohit was able to pinch a leg bye off the next delivery. Venugopal Rao was lucky that an edge flew to third man and he was able to give the strike back to Rohit Sharma. Deccan Chargers needed 15 off four deliveries and there was none better than the vice-captain to be on strike.

A juicy full toss followed and Rohit Sharma sent it over 115 metres for a six that, for the first time, instilled some doubt in the minds of Kolkata Knight Riders. Nine needed off the final three balls with Rohit Sharma, batting like a man possessed, in charge. Nerves showed on the field as Mortaza bowled a wide.

Eight needed of three balls and Rohit Sharma drove Mortaza to long-on, imploring Venugopal Rao to sprint two runs. Six needed off two deliveries and Rohit Sharma slammed a four through covers – teasing the fielder on the fence. One off the final ball and Motaza must have felt the loneliest man at the Bull Ring.

The Bangladesh all-rounder dug a short ball in and Rohit Sharma sent it soaring into orbit for a six. He scored 26 runs in the final over, the most expensive in IPL history and inflicted figures of 4-0-58-0, the worst in IPL history. Long before the ball disappeared in the stands, the Deccan Chargers camp erupted in wild celebration.

The drama of the final over obliterated all that happened in the 39 overs that preceded it. And there was a lot that happened - including a stunning assault by David Hussey who made 43 off just 17 balls, a super 48 by Brad Hodge, RP Singh being removed from the attack for bowling two successive waist-high full-tosses, a typical 43 off 31 balls by Adam Gilchrist when Deccan Chargers chased 161 for a win - not to speak of a breathtaking spell of four overs by Murali Kartik who returned with figures of one for 12.

The two points Deccan Chargers wrung out of the game saw them climb to third place with 14 points from 12 games behind Delhi Daredevils (16 points, 11 games) and Chennai Super Kings (15 points, 12 games). Deccan Chargers need to win against Kings XI Punjab or Royal Challengers Bangalore to make it to the last four on their own steam.

Chennai Super Kings seals last 4 spot with a win

Some of the most bizarre stats you will ever see in Twenty20 games added excitement to the chase, but in the end Chennai Super Kings pushed Mumbai Indians out of the tournament - barring even more bizarre permutations later on. Chasing 148 Matthew Hayden had scored at various points in his innings 5 off 16, 9 off 23, and 20 off 33. His first boundary came off the 34th ball he faced (better believe all this), but he hung in till the end as Mumbai lost yet another close game after having bowled exceptionally well in the first half of their defence. Chennai now are formalities short of making it to the semi-finals.

One of the litmus tests of exceptional players is how well they do when they are performing below themselves. Hayden passed that test today. The Mumbai bowlers were effective in keeping him down, especially Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo who set the tone, not giving him the length balls at all. In their first spells Malinga and Bravo bowled 11 balls to Hayden for just one run. But for a wide, Malinga even bowled a maiden. He also took Parthiv Patel's wicket first ball, the 10th time a wicket has fallen to the first ball of an innings in this IPL.

It would have been easy then for Hayden to try something outrageous to either hit out or get out. But he swallowed his ego, waited for his opportunities. How he looked during the struggle didn't seem to matter. Following Malinga and Bravo, Harbhajan Singh and JP Duminy kept it tight too, giving away 21 in overs 7 to 10.

At the strategy time-out Chennai needed 92. S Badrinath gave them a six in the first over after, but he fell in the same over. And Hayden went back to the grind again. Finally, in the 13th over, Hayden hit a four, off a short one from Chetanya Nanda, and then three more to never let the asking-rate cross 10. He got good support from MS Dhoni, who scored 23 off 22, and ran superbly between the wickets.

That the win came with five balls to go takes away from how close the teams were. They needed 27 off the last three overs when Harbhajan was brought back. A sloppy throw from Yogesh Takawale meant Hayden retained the strike, and Hayden hit a six next ball to provide the final twist. That six took him to 51 off 51, 31 runs coming off the last 18 balls. Now we're talking.

Mumbai, who have become the embodiment of "so near and yet so far", will look back at the final few overs of both innings as the ones that made the difference. Duminy, their most consistent batsman this season, got to his IPL best, but the Mumbai batsmen couldn't get the big hits then that would have taken the total from the realms of the competitive to the challenging. At 105 for 3 after 16 overs, they looked primed for a big assault, but could manage just 42 more, and 16 of them in the last two.

In a must-win game for Mumbai, Jayasuriya had answered the call early. A move up the order seemed to have worked. After two quiet overs the vintage Jayasuriya was on display, short-arm-jabbing fours and sixes to the leg side, and lofting a six over point. But just when it seemed one of those famous Jayasuriya innings that end the match in the first quarter itself was on, he skied one from Sudeep Tyagi, but not before he had put the Mumbai innings on its way. In two overs, the score went from 16 for 1 to 49 for 2, and Jayasuriya went from 2 off 7 to 30 off 17.

Duminy capitalised on that start, setting Mumbai up, despite tight bowling by spinners in the middle overs and the loss of Sachin Tendulkar in the 11th over for the second time this tournament. Abhishek Nayar and Duminy batted sensibly till the 16th over, adding 31 in the next 5.1 overs. In the 17th over, Duminy, who had until then relied mainly on his exceptional running between the wickets to get 35 off 40, opened up, but a smart 19th over from L Balaji robbed them of the momentum. Chennai scored 30 off the last 13 balls they faced, Mumbai 17.

Kings XI keep their semi-final hopes alive

Brett Lee and Ashish Nehra, two of the finest exponents of the art of pace and swing bowling, were on top of their game and sought their best to reduce all else to being mere members of support cast as Kings XI Punjab shocked table toppers Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in the DLF Indian Premier League here on Friday and gave themselves the chance to making the semifinals.

Both men were hostile, bowling with the palpable intent of hassling and hustling the opposition batsmen. On a track that was not exactly conducive to their ilk, Lee and Nehra found the motivation to showcase the best of their skills but though Nehra bowled as many as 18 dot balls in a dream spell, it was Lee who caused more damage.

Lee got the dangerous Virender Sehwag nibbling a catch down the leg side in the third over of the evening. Gautam Gambhir’s run out dismissal in the next over meant that Kings XI Punjab could hold Lee back just in case Delhi Daredevils launched a fightback. In the event, Lee came back to harass Farvez Mahroof into submission in the 17th over and Rajat Bhatia with the first ball of his next over

With AB de Villiers and Tillekeratne Dilshan also falling cheaply – a rare event in IPL 2009 – Delhi Daredevils were unable to make more than 120 for nine in 20 overs. S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan picked up two wickets each as well with some tight bowling.

The stage was set for Nehra and Sangwan to hit back but while Nehra was stupendous, Sangwan – bowling with the new ball and not first change – was expensive as Simon Katich waded into him in his first over and Irfan Pathan did likewise in the left-arm seamer’s final over to release some of the pressure that was building on Kings XI Punjab.

Kumar Sangakkara top-scored, using all his technical acumen to ensure that Kings XI Punjab would not collapse as dramatically as Delhi Daredevils. He controlled the rudder as his team crossed the line. Of course, he was helped by Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan in directing the chase from 35 for three.

Delhi Daredevils opted to make three changes to the squad that squeezed a dramatic win over Deccan Chargers in the last game. Opener David Warner, fast bowler Dirk Nannes and leg-spinner Amit Mishra were all rested. In their place, Farvez Mahroof, Mithun Manhas and Daniel Vettori were roped in. Those who came in performed creditably.

With 12 points from as many games, Kings XI Punjab leapfrogged over Mumbai Indians to the sixth place. The win gave them a lifeline to the semifinals as they can go into their matches against Deccan Chargers (Sunday) and Chennai Super Kings (Wednesday) with renewed self-belief.

Despite the defeat, Delhi Daredevils are sitting pretty at the top of the table with 16 points from 11 games. They have matches against Rajasthan Royals (Sunday), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Tuesday) and Mumbai Indians (Thursday) and are expected to retain their premier place, going into the semifinals.

Cool Rajasthan take humdinger

The spectators at Kingsmead were treated to yet another humdinger as the Rajasthan Royals prevailed by two runs in a see-saw encounter with the Mumbai Indians. Rajasthan were in control of the game for 14 overs before Sachin Tendulkar and Abhishek Nayar opened out and gave Mumbai hope. It all came down to the final over when Mumbai needed four runs but a combination of some incredible death bowling by Munaf Patel and panic running resulted in three wickets, incredible scenes and a third-place spot for Rajasthan.

When Nayar made room and lofted Johan Botha over deep extra cover in the penultimate over, Mumbai - who battled required rates crossing nine an over - suddenly needed six off nine deliveries. The following delivery, Nayar played all around a yorker, lost sight of the ball and ambled out of his crease, only to be run out by the keeper. The dismissal was as untimely as Mumbai's revival, which came a little too late and resulted in a last-minute scramble for the required runs.

Munaf had leaked 14 off his previous over but Warne was brave enough to toss the ball back to him for the final over. Munaf beat Dhawal Kulkarni off the first ball and then slipped in a yorker to trap him lbw. Chetanya Nanda pushed the third, a full toss, to mid-off but perished to a direct hit. That put Harbhajan Singh back on strike but he could only squeeze a single off the next ball. Three were needed off two balls when Lasith Malinga took strike but yet another suicidal single, this time to cover, closed out the match.

It took a good 15 overs for the chase to actually come alive. Mumbai were kept on a tight leash by some excellent restrictive bowling by Rajasthan, particularly the slower bowlers. The duo of Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar - with 20 years of experience behind them - were silenced, to the extent that they had to settle for singles and an array of dot balls when the situation demanded at least a boundary every over to keep with the rising asking rate.

Much of that had to do with the early loss of wickets. At 23 for 3, Mumbai looked to their most explosive pair to give the innings a shove but the ball somehow just didn't find the boundary. The spinners were spot on target, varied their pace and slipped in the odd yorker. The boundary drought lasted 45 balls, before Tendulkar chipped down the track and lofted Warne over extra cover.

Jayasuriya tried to break free by slog sweeping the spinners but those heaves met thin air. When he connected, the ball ballooned off the bottom half of his pad and skied to short midwicket where Yusuf Pathan took a diving catch. JP Duminy barely had enough time to settle in before he chopped one from Siddarth Trivedi onto his stumps. It was a smart bowling change by Warne, who decided to bring in a seamer after Tendulkar charged Yusuf and carted him over long-on for a massive six. The anxiety levels in the Rajasthan camp shot up when Tendulkar slammed Ravindra Jadeja down the ground for three consecutive boundaries.

Warne let out a war cry when he trapped Tendulkar fell lbw trying to sweep him but the game was far from over, at least in Nayar's mind. With a stance as imposing Lance Klusener, he took his left leg out of the way to mow Botha for consecutive fours over the on side and the following over, he did the same to Munaf. The equation had come down close to a run-a-ball before panic set in.

There were doubts as to whether Rajasthan had made enough especially after Rob Quiney and Jadeja had given the innings the impetus with a stand of 61 in six overs. Rajasthan Royals' shoddy batting effort against Deccan Chargers demanded a few changes at the top of the order and Quiney responded positively to his recall to the side in place of the inconsistent Swapnil Asnodkar. In his earlier games, Quiney often made starts, only to throw it away. Tonight, he seemed determined to stay at the wicket and play the dominant role in the stand with Jadeja, who matched Quiney in his powerful shots over the on side.

The spinners had held the initiative with some tight bowling to pressurize the top order but the pair chose attack as the best form of defence. Between overs 12 and 15, Rajasthan managed 50 runs and the batsman who started the domination was Jadeja, who cut Harbhajan past point and slog swept over the on side. Quiney was particularly strong over the onside, slog sweeping Duminy high over deep square-leg before tonking Bravo for 19 in an over. The power behind his strokes stood out as he sent the ball sailing at least half a dozen rows back.

An excellent legstump yorker by Malinga sent back Quiney for 51 and after his departure, the runs dried up. Rajasthan managed only 22 off the last five overs and lost three wickets in the final over of the innings, bowled by Jayasuriya. Mumbai also lost three wickets in the final over of their innings but it was Rajasthan who had the last laugh.

Royal Challengers sneaks home in a thriller

Royal Bangalore Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings with two balls and two wickets to spare to keep alive their semi-final hopes in a match that swung - rather, careened - between the sides.

Needing 130 to win, after Chennai's lower-order capitulation following Matthew Hayden's 38-ball 60, it seemed Bangalore would sail through. But by the end of the Powerplays, struggling at 33 for 3, the semi-final looked a distant dream. Ross Taylor then played a mature innings, unlike his attacking one against Kolkata Knight Riders, taking on the anchor role while Virat Kohli hunted for boundaries. The match had swung in Bangalore's favour at the end of the 19th over, largely because of a six from Praveen Kumar that left them needing just five off the last.

Taylor nearly undid his efforts by stepping out and wildly swinging at a shorter delivery from Jacob Oram only to get the top edge, which was caught by Dhoni running back halfway to the boundary. Praveen was joined by Vinay Kumar at the crease, with the equation now a run-a-ball. Praveen took a single off his first ball; Vinay Kumar flicked the next to wide of midwicket and the batsmen scrambled two. There was more drama to follow as Vinay Kumar, using a runner, cut the next ball to backward point and L Balaji misfielded after diving at the boundary. Bangalore were unsure if they had got four and the batsmen, after taking a single, pushed off for one more, before a sheepish Balaji signalled a boundary and the end of the game.

Though the climax was thrilling, Bangalore will know they made a meal of the chase after their bowlers had bowled Chennai out for an under-par total. They started badly but should have never let it get to the final over.

Albie Morkel struck in the second ball of the innings, trapping Jacques Kallis leg before for a duck though replays suggested Kallis was hit just outside the off stump. Rahul Dravid looked in good nick, driving Morkel behind square for a four and then cutting Sudeep Tyagi to third-man boundary. But when he tried to repeat the shot in the next ball, he misjudged the bounce and popped a catch to S Badrinath to backward point. Tyagi's next over went for 11 runs but Morkel, who had conceded three runs in his second, struck in his third: Robin Uthappa was trapped by one that came in and hit him on middle and leg. Morkel, like Kallis, bowled his quota on the trot, finishing with 2 for 13. He varied his length and the new batsmen - Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor - cautious after the early collapse, chose not to take any risks.

Kohli and Taylor collected the runs through singles. Kohli did cut and sweep the spinners for fours but couldn't beat the fielders when driving down the ground. The two added ten more than MS Dhoni and Hayden had managed - 30 - between the Powerplay and the strategy break.

Kohli survived a chance in the 13th over, when he hit Murali for four over mid-on and just out of reach of Hayden, who had run in to take the catch. The over turned into a tug of war between bat and ball after that; Murali followed the four with three dot balls - two of which beat Kohli - after which Kohli charged down the track and hit a six over midwicket. Another big six off Jakati in the next over pushed their run-rate over six. But just as Bangalore looked to be steadying their innings, Chennai yanked the mat from under their feet with two wickets in the space of six balls. Kohli pulled a short ball from Balaji over midwicket and Oram ran in from the boundary to take a tumbling catch. Mark Boucher then missed the doosra by Murali and edged a catch to Hayden at slip. Murali gave away only two runs in that over which also featured an un-Twenty20 field for the final two balls: a slip, short leg and leg gully were in place for the new batsman Roelof van der Merwe.

With Taylor and van der Merwe at the crease Bangalore held the initiative. But that slipped from their grasp with an unnecessary move from van der Merwe: after Taylor pulled Balaji for a six over midwicket, the two batsmen took a single only to see an overthrow go past them. Van der Merwe was late on the second run would still have made the crease at a stretch. However, he ran in sluggishly, not grounding his bat and was run out.

Bangalore live to bat another day but they'll have to work on it in the meanwhile. As will Chennai, who just imploded towards the end of the innings. Chennai crossed 100 in the 13th over but managed only 28 more in the next seven.

However the collapse was triggered by some tight bowling by Bangalore in the middle overs. Kallis were chiefly responsible for staunching the run flow with Kallis taking a two wickets in consecutive overs, including a maiden one.

Hayden had power-hit Chennai to 52 in the Powerplay overs and then looked to consolidate the score with Dhoni. Vinay Kumar and Praveen went for 28 runs in their first two overs as Hayden messed up their lengths by stepping out and swatting them over the fielders for boundaries. The run-rate was over nine an over even after the loss of two wickets but things began to crumble with Dhoni's fall. Dhoni tried going for a big shot but van der Merwe pulled off a stunning catch off his own bowling by diving to his wrong side. The fall of wickets hadn't affected Hayden's batting - he launched van der Merwe for a six over his head one ball after Dhoni's wicket - but he fell in the next over by Kumble, when he mistimed a pull and was caught by at the boundary by Vinay Kumar. After that, the other bowlers joined in tightening that noose: van der Merwe conceded three in his final over, B Akhil two off his first, Vinay Kumar and Praveen picked up a wicket each, while Kumble ended S Badrinath's agonising nine-ball stay.

In the end a few more runs lower down the order could have meant Bangalore's exit from the tournament.

Daredevils win from nowhere

Delhi Daredevils home-bred all-rounder Rajat Bhatia answered tens of thousands of prayers, taking a crucial catch that to off Deccan Chargers slide and claiming four wickets in the span of nine deliveries to help his team snatch a magical 12-run victory from the jaws of a rare defeat in the DLF Indian Premier League at Kingsmead here on Wednesday.

From a heady 149 for three, Deccan Chargers collapsed in a heap to 161 all out, losing seven wickets in just 17 deliveries and making a hash of the chase of 174-run target. And this after Adam Gilchirst sent the side off to a fiery start with five sixes and five fours in making 64 off 33 balls; and Andrew Symonds followed it up with 41 off 22 balls (three fours and two sixes).

On a day when fans lost count of the catches that went abegging, Bhatia held a good one to end Ravi Teja’s stay in the middle and his 63-run stand with Symonds. He was then entrusted with the task of bowling the 17th over with Deccan Chargers needing 25 runs off three overs. He responded by castling Symonds with a slower one and beating Dwayne Smith’s slog to bowled him with a slow leg-cutter.

Panic set in the Deccan Chargers ranks and the rest of the side fell without even putting up a feeble fight. Expensive in his first three overs, Ashish Nehra trapped Venugopal Rao with a superb short delivery that found the glove on the way to Dinesh Karthik. He then ran out RP Singh who tried to steal a single so that Chaminda Vaas could be on strike.

And in the next over, Bhatia was back to dismiss Pragyan Ojha and Shoaib Ahmed to wrap up a fantastic win for Delhi Daredevils and consolidate their position at the top of the table with 16 points from eight wins in 10 matches. Deccan Chargers have time till Saturday to recover from the shock of having gifted the match to Delhi Daredevils.

Then again, to call the victory a gift from Deccan Chargers would be quite unfair to Delhi Daredevils, especially a number of men like Tillekeratne Dilshan (37 off 18 balls, seven fours, one six), AB de Villiers (44 off 36 balls) and the fantastic Karthik (44, 23 balls, four fours, three sixes) as well as Pradeep Sangwan who bowled a wonderful spell to finish with figures of 4-1-18-3.

Each of those men played a superb role in the victory. Dilshan, batting at No. 3, hurried the scoring at the start, taking 24 runs off Shoaib Ahmed’s over; AB held the side together while Karthik provided the stunning flourish at the finish of the innings that saw the side raise 70 runs in the last six overs. Sangwan’s accuracy was so bewildering that Deccan Chargers let him bowl as many as 18 dot balls.

And yet, in the end, it was Bhatia who walked away with the man of the match award for his hand in Delhi Daredevils’ revival. Adam Gilchrist, of course, said there was no magic in what Delhi Daredevils had achieved and admitted that his side had lost the plot in the final stages of a match that they appeared to have well in control.

Bravo hands a Win for Mumbai Indians

For the second time in two meetings between these teams, Kings XI Punjab batted first and scored 119, but unlike the game in Durban, there was no redemption in the field this time as Mumbai Indians swept to an eight-wicket win to move up to 11 points and fourth in the points table. The win was set up by Mumbai's offspinners - Harbhajan Singh, JP Duminy and Ajinkya Rahane returned combined figures of 4 for 29 in nine overs to launch a stunning comeback. Dwayne Bravo ensured a hiccup-free run-chase with a magnificent unbeaten 70 in an innings full of expansive drives and pulls.

Mahela Jayawardene's absence due to a leg injury sustained during the previous game hit Punjab badly: not only did they miss his calm presence in the middle order, it also meant there were six left-handers in the top eight, since his replacement was Luke Pommersbach. That suited Sachin Tendulkar's offspin theory perfectly, and Punjab didn't help their cause with some reckless shot-making and brainless running between the wickets.

After the first five overs, though, it seemed this match would be a run-fest just like the previous one of the day, when Ross Taylor's heroics had lit up Centurion. Punjab rattled along to 50 off a mere 32 balls, with Sunny Sohal (43 off 23) plundering boundaries at will, either shuffling across his stumps to flick to leg, or giving himself room to carve sixes over point. Soon, though, Harbhajan came into the attack, beat Kumar Sangakkara with his first three deliveries, and from there Punjab had little to cheer as Tendulkar quickly latched on to the offspin theory.

Coming in to bowl in the eighth over, Harbhajan immediately settled into a magnificent rhythm. Bowling from round the stumps to the left-handers, he flighted the ball, got it to drift in, and the spin away sharply. Sangakkara was clueless off the first three deliveries, and then lost that contest comprehensively when he played all over one from Harbhajan's next over.

Duminy was soon pressed into the attack, and he responded with two strikes in his second over, first getting Wilkin Mota to hoick one to Harbhajan, who juggled repeatedly before holding on, and Yuvraj Singh, who paid the price for hitting against the turn. The twin offspin success prompted Tendulkar to try Ajinkya Rahane, and that move paid off too, as Pommersbach played a rash head-in-the-air shot that typified Punjab's approach.

In between all the spin trouble, Punjab contributed to their own downfall with some extremely sloppy running between the wickets. Mota gave it away with one such effort, making no effort to get back into his crease when Tendulkar misfielded at midwicket.

The bowlers had done much more than had been expected of them, and Bravo and Tendulkar ensured the run-chase would be a canter. Punjab nailed a couple of wickets - including that of Sanath Jayasuriya - to give them some initial hope, but Bravo, who survived a tough caught-and-bowled chance off Irfan Pathan early in his innings, ended the momentary high with a fearsome assault on Sreesanth which turned the momentum completely Mumbai's way.

Only 14 had come off the first four overs when Sreesanth came into the attack, and Bravo duly seized the opportunity, pulling him for four, straight-driving and flicking him over long-on for two glorious sixes, and then flicking through midwicket for another four as the over leaked 21.

Tendulkar soon joined in the fun, dropping down to No.4 and playing himself back into form after a run of low scores. The spinners caused a few problems, but Bravo trusted his footwork, going down the pitch and striking Yuvraj for a straight six. Piyush Chawla spun a few past the bat, Brett Lee bowled a fiery spell and tested the batsmen with pace and bounce - Bravo copped one on the helmet late in his innings - but with such a paltry target before them, the batsmen were never under any pressure. Tendulkar carved a few slog-sweeps through and over midwicket, Bravo finished it off with a spanking pull shot, and Mumbai ended the evening feeling much better about their semi-final chances than they had when they began the match.

Ross Taylor shocks Knight Riders to submission

Royal Challengers Bangalore Ross Taylor came up with a stunning innings at the SuperSport Park here on Tuesday to sink Kolkata Knight Riders' aspirations of salvaging some pride on their way out of the DLF Indian Premier League tournament. He made an unbeaten 81 off a mere 33 balls to pull the rug from under the Knight Riders' feet.

Chasing a steep 174-run target, Royal Challengers Bangalore were 70 for two at the Strategic Break and when Robin Uthappa swung Murali Kartik down the mid-wicket fielder's throat in the 11th over without adding much, the challenge got steeper. But Taylor was up to the task as he decimated the Knight Riders attack.

It seemed a lost cause when Rahul Dravid was caught and bowled by Ajantha Mendis in the 16th over but Taylor and Mark Boucher saw the side home in dramatic fashion. Ajit Agarkar was creamed for 28 runs in two overs while Ishant Sharma was inflicted memories of an 18-run over that included a pulled six off a waist-high full toss.

Boucher, who has a great reputation as a finisher, was privileged to watch Taylor unleash mayhem on unsuspecting bowlers. Taylor outscored Boucher 3:1 as he picked up two sixes off Agarkar and one each off Ishant Sharma and Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Matthews who was picked ahead of Bangaldesh's Mashrafe Mortaza.

Simply, stated it was dazzling fireworks in the day as Taylor showcased anticipation, timing and a sense of placement in generous measures to frustrate Kolkata Knight Riders who looked like they would halt a streak of six successive defeats. Instead, the fast bowlers undid the good work done by Kartik and Mendis and Taylor was able to turn the game on its head.

Earlier, Brendon McCullum played his best innings in IPL 2009 to spur Kolkata Knight Riders to their biggest score this season. After a watchful start when David Hussey kept the scorers busy, the beleaguered captain was at his creative best as he took the Royal Challengers bowling apart. McCullum led the way as his team made 105 runs from their 10 overs after the break.

The victory kept Royal Challenger Bangalore in the crowded race for a place in the semifinals. With 10 points from 11 games, the team occupied the fifth place in the table ahead behind Delhi Daredevils (14 points from nine matches), Chennai Super Kings (13 from 10), Deccan Charges (12 from 10) and Rajasthan Royals (11 from 11) before the second game of the night.

Deccan defeats Rajasthan

Deccan Chargers hit pay dirt in this diamond mining town on Monday, making all the right moves to stitch together a huge 53-run victory over defending champions Rajasthan Royals in the DLF Indian Premier League at the De Beers Diamond Oval here to enhance their chances of staying in the tournament beyond the double leg and into the semifinals.

To begin with, skipper Adam Gilchrist and the team management chose to rope in Chaminda Vaas for the big game ahead of South African openers Herschelle Gibbs – and that move paid off big time as Vaas not only made a useful 20 but backed it up with early wickets of the dangerous Graeme Smith and Lee Carseldine.

Then, Dwayne Smith slammed four sixes, taking his tournament tally to 15, as he made a quickfire 47 to power Deccan Chargers to a total of 167 for seven in 20 overs after being 95 for four in 14. Smith was in charge as Deccan Chargers made 72 runs in those final six overs from Abhishek Raut, Ravindra Jadeja, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Warne and Yusuf Pathan.

Jadeja (two for 24) and Pathan (three for 34) claimed wickets and were quite effective but Warne was listless, often dropping the ball short to finish with one for 36 from four overs on Monday. He used Munaf Patel for an over with the new ball and did not return to him through the Deccan Chargers innings, including when the lower middle-order went on a rampage.

The target was achievable – as Mumbai Indians had shown a couple of nights ago at the same venue -- but it needed someone to anchor the innings while others had to ensure. In his first twop overs, Vaas ensured that that anchoring effort would not come from either Smith or Carseldine, the latter to a stumping by Gilchrist.

Asnodkar ploughed a lonely furrow as the game kept going away from Rajasthan Royals. Yusuf Pathan’s failure – well caught by Dwayne Smith at long-off when he tried to cart Pragyan Ojha out of the ground – meant that the team did not have the firepower to even close the gap. Sadly, for Rajasthan Royals, there was a messy collapse engineered by Rohit Sharma’s off-spin.

Rajasthan Royals will be now hoping that the rash of wickets from 74 for three to 113 all out on Monday will not come back to haunt them when the semifinalists are spotted. Of course, they have to play against Kolkata Knight Riders, who are at the bottom of the pile now, but before that, they have two tough games against Mumbai Indians and table-toppers Delhi Daredevils.

Deccan Chargers (12 points from 10 games) swapped the third and fourth places with Rajasthan Royals (11 points but from 11 games). In their last four games in the league, Gilchrist’s team have to play leaders Delhi Daredevils and stragglers Kolkata Knight Riders as well as Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Nightmare continues for Knight Riders

Delhi Daredevils’ obsession with retaining the winning momentum continued unabated at the packed Wanderers here on Sunday night when they trounced bottom-placed Kolkata Knight Riders with plenty to spare. Their seventh win in nine games gave them 14 points – and the top spot on the DLF Indian Premier League table.

AB de Villiers offered Delhi Daredevils some deep insight into the track at the Bull Ring, as the Wanderers ground is known. That mean Gautam Gambhir had no hesitation in giving his bowlers first use of the pitch. Ashish Nehra and Dirk Nannes responded with enthusiasm and reduced the Knight Riders to nine for three in the second over.

Nehra may have been fortunate in getting Brendon McCullum leg before one delivery after the Knight Riders captain pulled him for six. But he induced an edge from Brad Hodge three balls later to set Delhi Daredevils off to a rousing start. This put him in joint second place in the list of wicket-takers along with Yusuf Abdulla and Lasith Malinga (14 each) behind RP Singh (15).

Nannes backed that up by getting Morne van Wyk to pull straight to Rajat Bhatia at specially positioned square-leg. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra enjoyed himself by claiming three for 14 in his four over to shatter any escape plans by the Knight Riders.

The gallant Sourav Ganguly (44) at the top and Ajit Agarkar (39) at the end were the batsmen who defied Delhi Daredevils but there was pretty much nothing else from the others as Knight Riders perished to a poor batting display.

A score of 123 for eight in 20 overs was never going to be enough to challenge Delhi Daredevils, even though the gangling Ishant Sharma came back for a second spell to claim the wickets of David Warner (36) and Tillekeratne Dilshan (1) in one over and cause some excitement among the Knight Riders fans.

Then again, AB de Villiers played the steadying hand with a knock of 40 not out. He found a useful ally in Dinesh Karthik who made 17 of the 56 runs that the pair added to see the side home. de Villiers showed that even if there were not too many South African players in the Delhi Daredevils squad, he would count not only with his batting but also with his inputs.

Delhi Daredevils have now won a series of games without their regular captain Virender Sehwag. They have five league games to go before the semifinals but have installed themselves as the team to beat, even ahead of Chennai Super Kings. The kind of confidence the team has exuded and their sense of purpose set them on course to being favourites.

As for Kolkata Knight Riders, they are now left with a mere three points and a lot of introspection to do after 10 points. They have a slim theoretical – and some would argue, fairytale – chance of making it to the last four. They will have to go back to the drawing board – again, some would argue that they must not go that.

Mumbai Indians Keeps their Semi-Final Hopes Alive

Pushed into the corner after three successive defeats, Mumbai Indians turned in a fine all-round performance at St George's Park, converting a middling target of 158 into a match-winning one. Sachin Tendulkar failed with the bat, falling for a third-ball duck, but he didn't falter with his captaincy moves. Starting with the promotion of Ajinkya Rahane, who scored an unbeaten 59, it was the bowling changes which proved crucial in the end as they resulted in the fall of four wickets. The wheels came off Bangalore and the game was over when they needed an improbable 40 off the last two overs.

Mumbai had earned their revenge after being vanquished by Bangalore exactly a week ago at the Wanderers. Their defeat to Delhi Daredevils was just as demoralising when their batting imploded. Today, they reworked their batting order, turned in a much more commanding performance and lost just two wickets. A stand of 104 between Rahane and JP Duminy gave their comeback campaign a surge and the momentum rubbed off on the bowlers who all chipped in with equal measure to effect timely breakthroughs and in turn strangle the runs.

Bangalore had the momentum briefly early in the chase when Kallis whipped a couple of stylish boundaries through the on side. The introduction of Dwayne Bravo sent him back as he upper cut a short delivery straight to third man. Robin Uthappa's inconsistency showed up again as he slapped Kulkarni straight to short midwicket before Virat Kohli perished in the same manner. Kohli looked to get on top of the seamers but when Tendulkar brought on Chetanya Nanda, it immediately brought about a wicket.

The run-out of Rahul Dravid, done in by a flat throw from Malinga in the deep, sunk Bangalore and at the end of 10 overs, they were desperately in need of a recovery at 58 for 4. Ross Taylor heaved Nanda over deep square-leg to bring about the first six of the innings but the relief was only temporary as Malinga returned for a new spell and sent Taylor back with a lightning quick yorker. Malinga had set it up earlier in the over with similar deliveries and one could sense a wicket was around the corner.

Boucher at the other end tried to glue the chase together but the support wasn't forthcoming. Harbhajan returned for a new spell and sent back the dangerous Roelof van der Merwe thanks to a brilliant leg-side stumping by Yogesh Takawale. At the start of the 14th over, Bangalore ran out of specialist batsmen and by the end, needed 66 off the last six overs. Mumbai on the other hand managed 65 off their last six and that proved the difference.

Bringing back Sanath Jayasuriya gave the innings a much-needed push after Tendulkar's early fall. He ensured Mumbai held the edge in the first Powerplay with 46 on the board with a wicket down, a contrast to the way they started against Delhi where they struggled to find the ropes.

He fell soon after van der Merwe came into the attack but the spinners couldn't contain Rahane, who made the most of his promotion. He began by slogging Kumble over the on side, including a huge six over wide long-on on his knee.

His intention was to get positive against the spinners and he demonstrated that by regularly chipping down the track to smother the spin and loft inside out. Not all aerial shots found the boundary but it didn't matter as he and his partner Duminy kept rotating the strike.

Duminy broke the boundary drought - which lasted more than three overs - with a massive six, off a front foot pull, off the debutant Abhmanyu Mithun. That shot signaled his arrival after a quiet start as he lofted van der Merwe over his head and swung Vinay Kumar over backward square-leg for another half a dozen.

Between overs 11 and 14, Mumbai scored 25 runs. In the next three they managed 33, indicative of their revival. Rahane reached his fifty with a deft dab to third man and Duminy raced towards his as he went into fifth gear with some scorching drives through the off side. Mumbai went into the break with much cheer, and their bowlers stepped up to fashion a much-needed win to move up by one place in the points table. It will take a while to get up higher but at least they crossed the first hurdle.

Super Kings too good for Rajathan Royals

S Badrinath, man of the match in Chennai Super Kings' win against defending champions Rajasthan Royals in the DLF Indian Premier League credited opening batsman Matthew Hayden's presence and guidance for boosting his confidence. "With Hayden around, things became easy for me. I owe it to him. He really helped me," he said.

Badrinath made a brilliant 59 and then said that it wasn't an easy track to bat on. "The ball was turning a lot. I knew I had to stick in there and give myself enough time before giving charge. Shane Warne was one bowler we had to negotiate and we managed to do that. He could bowl only four overs and we just played him safely, Haydos having one very good over against him,"

Happy with the win that put Chennai Super Kings at the top of the table, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that it's wasn't an easy win. "We thought the track will remain the same but to our surprise the pitch started taking turn during our innings. Against Shane Warne and Yusuf Pathan, chasing even 140 could have been difficult. But thankfully we have many left-handed batsmen and they negotiated the spinners well," Dhoni said.

The Chennai skipper said his bowlers gave away 15 runs too. "We gave away 15 runs more than par. But Hayden and Badrinath played superbly. It heartening to see at least one of our top-order batsmen playing well in every match and that leaves the middle order with less pressure as the rest only have to build up on the start. But I must say that we need to improve our fielding and catching," he said.

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne said they had set a target which was defendable had they managed to take some early wickets. "It was a fighting total. We would have been in the game if would have taken early wickets," he said. "But Chennai Super Kings played fantastic cricket and showed their class. They played better and controlled the game. A win would have taken us to the safe zone. But nothing to worry as we have our game on Monday and will try to get back our momentum."

Chennai Super Kings off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said pitch would definitely help the spinners after the break. "It helped me a little bit more than anybody else. The ball is turning. I don't know if part-timers will be getting the turn or not but genuine spinners like Shane Warne will get assistance," he said.

Kings XI defeats Deccan Chargers

A powerful start from the top four, followed by nerveless hands from Mahela Jayawardene and Brett Lee stole the thunder from Andrew Symonds' first IPL game, setting up Kings XI Punjab's win over the Deccan Chargers at the Kimberley Oval. The win won't take Punjab into the top four but they will hope it is an end to their poor run of three losses in the last four games. This was the game of the two returning Australians, Symonds and Lee, and though both starred, only one prevailed as the match went down to the final over.

Jayawardene had taken Punjab to 20 short of the win in the 18th over when he was run out for a measured 43, setting up a tense finale. Nineteen were required off 12 balls; Piyush Chawla and Lee collected three runs off the first three before Lee eased the pressure with a searing six over long-off. Two more singles meant Punjab needed eight off the last over and the game looked over as Chawla hooked a four off RP Singh's first ball. But RP hit back, leaving three needed off the final three. Lee scrambled two to long-off before finishing it off with one ball left.

Punjab's top four had added runs and lost wickets in pairs, but they set up the chase with 86 in first ten overs. The openers, Sunny Sohal and Simon Katich, gave their side an explosive start of 44 in four overs, before falling within two balls of each other to Rohit Sharma, fresh from four wickets in five balls earlier this week. Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh diluted his effect, milking 11 from his second over. They also went after Symonds - taking 20 in one over - before being dismissed within two balls of each other to Shoaib Ahmed just before the strategy break. In trying to contain them, Deccan had used seven bowlers by then, with only Rohit bowling two successive overs.

After the break, Pragyan Ojha bowled two tight overs after which Gilchrist brought T Suman into the attack and was immediately rewarded with Irfan Pathan's wicket, swinging the game in Deccan's favour once again. But Jayawardene kept Punjab in the hunt with successive sixes, before Lee finished it off.

Earlier, Symonds' power-hitting had taken Deccan to a competitive 168, though a slow-down mid-innings - they added four runs for the loss of two wickets between overs 10 and 12 - was probably the eventual difference. Deccan owed their quick start - 44 in the first five overs - to Gilchrist, Suman and several Punjab misfields. Gilchrist hit Pathan for two fours in his first over, then pulled Sreesanth's first ball for a six before falling in the same over.

Suman came in and attacked right from the start, picking Pathan off his pads for six and also getting runs off edges. After Herschelle Gibbs fell, cutting Chawla to Jayawardene at backward point, Suman and Rohit began building on the quick start. They rotated the strike and picked boundaries off anything short - Chawla was hit for a six to long-off by Suman and lofted for four to wide midwicket by Rohit in an over that cost 12 runs.

A bowling change in the tenth over ended Suman's innings and it looked like Deccan were losing the plot before Symonds broke the shackles. After Yuvraj Singh missed a caught-and-bowled chance off him, Symonds picked a short ball by Piyush Chawla for a six over midwicket. Deccan crossed 100 in the 15th over after which he began attacking in earnest. Irfan Pathan went for 13 runs and Sreesanth for 20 - including consecutive sixes over long-on and long-off -as Symonds reached his fifty off 29 balls.

But for the second time in the IPL, Symonds played a big innings and ended up on the losing side.

As Expected Delhi Daredevils Win

Delhi Daredevils reclaimed their position at the top of the DLF Indian Premier League ladder with a seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians at the Buffalo Park here on Friday but they will be the first to concede that they did not manage the chase of 117-run target too well.

Playing their third successive match without the injured captain Virender Sehwag, Delhi Daredevils relied too much on David Warner’s aggression to get off to a flying start but he found the boundaries hard to come by. Dhawal Kulkarni had bowled a great spell with the new ball when he conceded just nine runs in three overs.

Lasith Malinga went for a few runs but Dwayne Bravo backed up Kulkarni’s effort with an over in which he gave away only two runs, setting the stage for the off-spinners to come on. Jean Paul Duminy and Harbhajan Singh bowled in tandem and brilliantly at that, the first flighting the ball and getting much turn and the Indian off-spinner pushing the ball through.

The Mumbai Indians off-spinners tied down the Delhi Daredevils so well, conceding just 36 runs in their eight overs, that Sachin Tendulkar was tempted to introduce himself after a chat with both these bowlers. The score read 74 for two in 15 overs – Delhi Daredevils needed 43 runs in the final five overs.

To his horror, Tendulkar did not find the right length. AB de Villiers flicked the flighted first delivery between mid-on and mid-wicket; the next ball was a full toss that AB gleefully put away for six over mid-wicket; the third delivery was pitched way too short and the batsman sent it to the mid-wicket fence. The match, as a contest, was effectively over.

AB reconfirmed that with another powerful pull off the fifth delivery that was way too short and the Tendulkar over finished with him conceding 19 runs to the Delhi Daredevils. Rohan Raje bowled three dot balls at the start of the 16th over but went for 11 runs off the next three balls, with Tillekeratne Dishan stroking the last two balls for fours. That sealed it.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians were unable to recover from a disastrous start. On a day when they had decided to drop Sanath Jayasuriya and field Like Ronchi in his place, the Australian wicket-keeper batsman was run out off the second ball, coming second best to Warner’s under-arm throw from cover.

As if that were not enough, the other opener Duminy was drawn to a beautiful outswinger from Dirk Nannes and was caught by wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik and Mumbai Indians openers were both back in the hut in the first over itself. Tendulkar was run out by a direct hit from behind the stumps when he set off for a single without realising where he had played the ball.

Bravo played a lone hand, making 35 runs but the total was never going to challenge Delhi Daredevils – or so we thought until the Gautam Gambhir-led team responded so slowly and nearly made a hash of the chase.

For all that, with a sixth win in eight games, Delhi Daredevils moved to the top of the table with 12 points while Mumbai Indians wallow in the seventh place, with seven points from nine matches and needing to win all their remaining five games to stay in the reckoning for the semifinals.

Clinical batting & Lacklustre bowling nevertheless Chennai wins

A million thoughts and a handful of emotions raged in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's mind but he had the calmness to pluck the best thought and press in to action in a crisis situation: He summoned Suresh Raina to bowl his brand of off-spin against a rampaging Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene and was rewarded with a spell that read 2-0-8-0.

In a heady DLF Indian Premier League match, reduced by rain to 18 overs a side but one that was marked by 17 sixes as the highlight of some cavalier batting by either team, Raina's bowling figures were like the oasis in a desert and played no mean role in helping Chennai Super Kings scrape through to a 12-run victory over Kings XI Punjab.

Taking first strike, Chennai Super Kings lost S Badrinath to the first ball from Irfan Pathan but Matthew Hayden's amazingly powerful 89 (58 balls, eight fours, six sixes), Raiana's quickfire 32 (20 balls) and Dhoni's second successive half-century powered Chennai Super Kings to 185 for three off 18 overs on either side of a longish rain break.

Simon Katich took upon himself the task of launching Kings XI Punjab's chase of the revised target of 187. He waded into the Chennai Super Kings bowlers and ran up 50 off 25 balls (three fours, four sixes) before slashing L Balaji;s first ball to the sweeper on the off-side and left a platform for Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardens to try and pinch the game.

Needing 103 to win off 8.5 overs, the fourth-wicket pair ravaged seven fours and three sixes in its stand of 90 and looked to be on its way to securing the win for Kings XI Punjab when Yuvraj Singh slammed Albie Morkel over mid-wicket. The ball flew a whopping 119 metres - by far the longest hit recorded in the tournament.

Yuvraj Singh had just made a statement -- he was not going to let Chennai Super Kings get away with a facile victory. Kings XI Punjab needed 44 off 24 balls. Sudeep Tyagi, who bowled brilliantly with the new ball, and L Balaji had two overs each. And Kings XI Punjab appeared to be in the driving seat.

It was at this moment that Dhoni turned to Raina. He bowled each of his 12 deliveries in the 15th and 17th overs with a simple plan: not to offer the destructive Kings XI batsmen the length or the width. He kept the ball short of length and was smart enough to not let it bounce high enough for the batsmen to get their willows under the ball and launch it in orbit beyond the boundary.

Dhoni's decision was a masterstroke. Captain Cool, his mind a bundle of emotions including anger and disappointment, had calmly pulled out a trump card to which Kings XI Punjab had no answer. Chennai Super Kings climbed to the top of the table with 11 points while Kings XI Punjab are caught in a traffic jam in sixth place with eight points.