da cassino： Plays of the day from the IPL game between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab in Chennai
da apostaganha： Siddarth Ravindran at the MA Chidambaram Stadium22-Mar-2010Ramesh 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 theChennai 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, hewas 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; inthe second over Hayden signalled for it when he had a free-hit. To thefans’ disappointment, he didn’t connect with a big swipe. Worse followedin the Super Over, when the Mongoose’s larger ‘sweet spot’ proved ofno use, as Hayden was bowled first ball.The Chennai ripple
Fans at the IPL are generally a boisterous bunch, happy to roar theirapproval even at a no-particular-reason bugle, and enthusiastic incounting 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 overof the Punjab innings, he implored the spectators in stand D to stand upand wave to no effect. At his repeated cajoling, a few fans desultorilygot 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 thestadium 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 Haydenlbw, though the massive appeal was turned down by the umpire because theball pitched outside leg. Off the very next delivery, he tricked acharging Hayden by pitching the ball a little shorter, and the ballcrashed into off stump. Before launching into his celebrations though,Powar made a tongue-in-cheek appeal to ask the umpire whether that wasgood 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-drivenfour on the first ball off the 18th over provided some relief for the hometeam, but he was stumped off Piyush Chawla on the next delivery. Punjabwere back in the game, and Chawla got set for his trademark send-off – getdown on one knee and scream while forcefully punching the air with aclenched fist. However, as he bent down to start his celebration, his footslipped and he ended up on his backside.Multi-skilled players?
Bowlers are becoming increasing adept with their footwork. Over the pastmonth, both Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard ran out Zimbabwean batsmen bykicking the ball onto the stumps with their left foot during theirfollow-through. While the West Indian allrounders needed angled shots tohit the target, Juan Theron had a far simpler goalmouth tap-in; with threestumps to aim at, his right-footed the ball onto the wicket to send backSuresh Raina.Second-time lucky
Chennai have been one of the better fielding outfits in the IPL, and apartfrom Manpreet Gony’s drop, Raina’s team was sharp in the field again, withthe captain showing the way. In the 19th over, Raina just missed a directhit from cover to run-out Yuvraj Singh but made amends by knocking downthe stumps from a similar position in the final over to dismiss Theron fora 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 Powardelivery towards long-off but didn’t hit it as well as he would haveliked. The fielder on the boundary, Mohammad Kaif, was so focused ontaking the catch that he lost track of where the rope was, and ended uptripping over it and fell over as he back-pedalled. The ball cleared the boundary.
