Matthew Hayden waged a lone battle cracking a 38-ball 60 as Chennai Super Kings were restricted to a modest 129 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL match today.
Matthew Hayden waged a lone battle cracking a 38-ball 60 as Chennai Super Kings were restricted to a modest 129 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL match today.
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Hayden, who was in his trademark swashbuckling mood and adorned his innings with five fours and three sixes, did not find ample support from his colleagues as only two other batsmen - Suresh Raina (13) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (18) got to double digits.
Chennai lost their six wickets for only 28 runs with Jacob Oram (7), S Badrinath (2) and Albie Morkel (7) failing to add much to the total.
After Dhoni elected to bat first, Hayden started sizzling from the very beginning of the Chennai innings as the Australian cracked three boundaries in the second over off medium pacer R Vinay Kumar and then smote Praveen Kumar into the stands in the next over.
Anil Kumble brought South African Jacques Kallis into attack in fourth over and the all-rounder justified his skipper's decision by inflicting the first jolt to Chennai sending back opener M Vijay (5) cheaply as his lofted shot found Robin Uthappa in deep extra-cover region.
Kallis struck again in the sixth over when Raina, who was just getting his eyes in, failed to negotiate a rising delivery as Van der Merwe dived forward to pouch a well-judge catch.
Dhoni then paired up with Hayden, who was looking solid on the other end, to stitch up a 45-run partnership.
Spinner Merwe broke the pair just when it was looking dangerous by brilliantly taking a reflex catch off Dhoni (18 off 20) on his own run-up.
Kumble got the big breakthrough when Hayden failed to gauge a floater as his ambitious shot failed go across the rope and Vinay pouched a good catch near the boundary.
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