Royal Challengers Banglore - A Royal Drubbing

Chennai Super Kings MAUL Banglore Royal Challengers

There was a slight drizzle at Port Elizabeth but it cleared on time for the play to commence. Before the toss took place, the entire Bangalore team, along with MS Dhoni was present to witness Lalit Modi present the 'Orange Cap' to Rahul Dravid and the 'Purple Cap' to Anil Kumble. The Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and he decided to bat first on a pitch, which was reported to be a reasonable batting surface. The Chennai team chose to play Balaji, Muralitharan and Albie Morkel while the Bangalore team included Kallis in their playing eleven in place of Jesse Ryder.

The Chennai innings started off with a mixture of boundaries and mistimed shots by Hayden and Patel. Hayden got the first six of the match putting away a full toss off Praveen Kumar. It was the fifth over of the match when Kallis was introduced to the attack. Hayden ambushed the bowler, hitting three boundaries and a six of his over.

While Patel kept rotating the strike, Matthew Hayden was firing away in his vintage style reaching his fifty in just 22 balls. Hayden got lucky when he survived a close LBW shout off Anil Kumble but the 'Bulky Australian' assisted by Parthiv Patel, carried on and took Chennai to a score of 106 at the end of the 10th over.

The 'Strategy Break' came to the aid of the Bangalore team when the time-out resulted in two consecutive wickets. Patel was first to go when he missed an attempted slog sweep off Pietersen and the ball clipped the stumps. The very next ball resulted in the run-out of Matthew Hayden after an incorrect piece of calling by Suresh Raina. It seemed like Raina's lucky day, when a skier was put down Steyn much to the displeasure of Anil Kumble.

The Chennai captain MS Dhoni did not stay long and was dismissed by Praveen Kumar on 16. Raina held out to Virat Kohli giving Praveen his second wicket.

While Flintoff managed a couple of lusty blows in the final over, Steyn managed to dismiss Morkel off his last ball. At the end of 20 overs, Chennai managed to score 179 for the loss of five wickets after being 106/0 in the first 10 overs.

During the interval, Hayden was presented the 'Orange cap' for being the highest scorer in the tournament.

Without Jesse Ryder to open, Bangalore sent in the pinch hitter Praveen Kumar to open the innings with Uthappa. However, Praveen did not stay long and was bowled by MS Gony. Kallis came in at number 3 and was looking in great touch, dealing in boundaries. Uthappa game him good company, as the duo piled on runs at a steady rate. Just when things were shaping up well for Bangalore, Kallis departed after being LBW to Morkel.

Disaster struck for the Bangalore team when the lost three quick wickets. Taylor was the first to go, caught and bowled to Flintoff. Then came the Sri Lankan maestro Muttiah Muralitharan, who picked up the Bangalore captain and Uthappa in his first over. At the end of ten overs, Bangalore could manage only 56 runs and had lost half their side. 

Post break, Kohli and Bishnoi were out in quick succession. While Kohli got out to Joginder Sharma, Bishnoi advanced to the dugout after giving Muralitharan his third wicket. Bangalore slipped further down when Vinay Kumar was run-out.

A helpless Dravid was the last man to go as he hit a Balaji delivery straight to the safe hands of Flintoff at square-leg. The Royal Challengers were all-out for a dismal 87, losing the match to their South Indian rivals.

Post Match Quotes: 

Pietersen: We didn't turn up today did we? We might as well have stayed in Capetown and given them 2 points. We didn't execute our plans as well as we could have. When a genius like Hayden comes out and plays like that we just have to say well played and take it. 179 was too much for us. 

Dhoni: Hayden and Parthiv played really well. Overall quite happy with the batting performance, need to improve in the bowling. There is scope for improvement in the fielding department. Hayden was brilliant at the top of the order. When the wicket is helping him, Murali is the bowler who will take the team through.

(MoM) Murali: It was going to spin a little bit, as the wicket was quite dry. Haydos deserves the Man of the Match award as his 65 setup the game. 180 is very difficult to chase in this wicket. If it is going to turn like this then I will enjoy the tournament. 

Interesting Facts:

Hayden's fifty was also the fastest fifty of IPL 2009.

Matthew Hayden scored 65 runs and took his tally to 109 runs to secure the orange cap.

Chennai posted 179/5, the highest total in IPL 2009 so far.

Mumbai Indians win OVER ChennaiKIng in 1st T20 of IPL 2009

SACHIN PLAYED A CAPTAIN'S Knock in VICTORY

Sachin's Team wins over Chennai Super Kings of M Singh Dhoni

The opening match of the IPL got underway after some anxious moments of gray clouds and rain - but nothing, not even the weather gods it seems - could thwart Lalit Modi's pet project, and the sun came out in the nick of the time to allow the match to proceed as scheduled.

It couldn't have been a better match up on paper. Two well-balanced teams, both fancied for the title, with two iconic leaders.

MS Dhoni won the toss and had no hesitation in putting Mumbai in, on a pitch that was expected to have something for the bowlers, especially early on.

Mumbai started off well enough, although a bit cautiously, with the experienced duo of Jayasuriya and Tendulkar having to negotiate movement and variable bounce off the pitch.

Tendulkar benefitted when Hayden dropped a sitter with the little master on 10, and Jayasuriya found the boundary with his trademark cuts and pulls.

It was Jayasuriya's Sri Lankan team-mate, Thilan Thushara, who provided the breakthrough for Chennai when he got Jayasuriya to chip one tamely to Hayden at midwicket, who didn't grass it this time.

Shikhar Dhawan and Tendulkar then built a steady partnership, with Mumbai's intent obviously being to conserve wickets for a final onslaught.

Manpreet Gony however, had other ideas. He first got Dhawan with a top edged pull to give Dhoni at midwicket an easy catch and also the first c Dhoni b Gony moment of the IPL.

Then he got JP Duminy with a brilliant reflex catch, when Duminy was too early into a full-blooded pull and only succeeded in hitting it of the toe end of the bat straight back to the bowler.

The next over had Joginder Sharma getting into the act, deceiving Dwayne Bravo with a slower one.

Mumbai were in a hole, but Abhishek Nayar dug them out of it with a spectacular cameo, during the course of which he slammed the first six - or rather the first DLF Maximum - off Andrew Flintoff, and promptly celebrated by taking two more sixes off that Flintoff over. His 35 off just 14 balls, ensured that Mumbai would cross the 150 mark.

They eventually ended up at a very decent 165 for 7, thanks in no small measure to Sachin Tendulkar anchoring the innings with a well made 59 not out - although it seems odd to talk about an innings that was scored at a strike rate of over 120 as an 'anchoring' innings. But then, such is the nature of the T20 game.

Chennai began in disastrous fashion, with Lasith Malinga getting Parthiv Patel off the second ball of the match, poking at a delivery outside the off-stump for Tendulkar to take a fine tumbling catch to a ball that was dipping on him.

Raina followed soon after, falling to Bravo - which was some consolation for the bowler, who had seen Hayden dropped by wicketkeeper Pinal Shah off a swirling top edge the previous ball.

Chennai had their most productive phase when Flintoff joined Hayden to forge a 52 run partnership off 7 overs. With either player capable of exploding and changing the game in a couple of overs, Mumbai needed a wicket and Harbhajan obliged. After a teasing first over, he got Flintoff - deceived by the doosra to offer a tame return catch off the leading edge.

Harbhajan and Jayasuriya bowled well in tandem to choke the runs, and the pressure of the big hits got to Hayden who fell to Jayasuriya when Zaheer Khan took a fine catch, diving to his right.

Chennai were facing an uphill task after that, but in Oram, Dhoni and Badrinath they had the batsmen who could be up to the challenge. That was not to be, as Mumbai's bowlers turned in a bravura performance to not let the batsmen get on top at any stage of the innings. Dhoni played a lone hand, but ultimately against Malinga's reverse swing and Zaheer Khan's yorkers, the asking rate was too steep.

The Super Kings also erred when they sent in Joginder Sharma ahead of Thushara. Thushara would have probably dealt with the bowling better than Sharma, who often looked all at sea.

Man of the Match:

Sachin Tendulkar, who scored an unbeaten half-century under testing batting conditions, and also took a fine catch.

Turning Point of the match:

The 18th over of Mumbai's innings when Nayar smashed Flintoff for 3 sixes. The over cost Chennai 22 runs. They lost the match by 19.

Soundbytes:

"I think Bhajji bowled very well. The pitch was a bit damp early on but later on it was pretty good for batting. A score of may be 180 is a

par score on such a wicket. Even the last time, we didn't start off very well but got into the rhythm after a few games." - Dhoni

"When I lost the toss, I felt that there was a bit of dampness in the wicket. Early on it was tough to bat but the wicket eased a bit.

Nayar did a great job towards the end and my job was to stay there till the end. It is always good to start with a performance like this." - Tendulkar