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.
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