Plays of the Day from the IPL fixture between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai
Siddarth Ravindran at the MA Chidambaram Stadium31-Mar-2010
This was last year in South Africa; Manpreet Gony’s IPL 2010 has been a nightmare (file photo)•AFP
It’s not over yet
Welcome to the IPL, where things are so exciting no one’s even sure when thegame’s over. With seven deliveries remaining and Chennai Super Kings needingthree to win, R Vinay Kumar charged in to bowl. Suresh Raina slapped thewide full toss served up through covers for two, and umpire Rudi Koertzensignalled a no-ball – the extra run should have ended the match, but itdidn’t. Raina faced another delivery from Vinay, crashing it for four totake Chennai’s total five runs beyond Royal Challengers Bangalore’s and giving cricket statisticians something to quarrel about in their next meeting. The extra ball and runs were eventually discounted, and Chennai finished the game on 162.Such is life
With Chennai’s chase off to a cracking start, Harsha Bhogle, in the commentary box, was chatting to Virat Kohli, who was fielding at point, over the microphone. M Vijay slashed the next delivery towards Kohli, who was nutmegged when attempting aregulation stop. Bhogle asked after the misfield whether talking on-airhad distracted Kohli, to which his reply was: “Shit happens”.Gony baloney
It’s hard to think of a player having a worse tournament than ManpreetGony. He’s leaking runs at nearly two-a-ball, being butter-fingered in thefield, and the one chance he had to bat ended in an outrageous swipe thatcontributed to Chennai’s choke inthe match against Kings XI Punjab. It continued today, with his threeovers being smashed for 39 runs, and him dropping a straightforward catchoff Robin Uthappa at mid-off. Chennai had let off Uthappa twice in theteams’ previous encounter, but this time the batsman didn’t turn on thefireworks as he had at the Chinnaswamy.Vijay runs amuck
There’s already been a game in which Virender Sehwag was outscored by his openingpartner 29-0. It is not so far-fetched when you notice that the one makingthe runs is the explosive David Warner. It is a bit more freakish to seethe scorecard reading 38-0 (ML Hayden 0*, M Vijay 37*). Vijay isn’texactly renowned for his big hitting, but he showed off his ability tosmash the ball in the fourth over, lashing 24 leg-side runs off PraveenKumar. The over read: 0, 6, 2, 6, 4, 6.Keeping the crowd guessing
The last time Chennai played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, they made a mess of a game theyshould have won with ease. At one stage today, Chennai had needed 57 off54 with eight wickets remaining. But some tight Bangalore bowling and thewickets of MS Dhoni and Albie Morkel left Chennai needing 16 off the finaltwo overs, and the crowd remembering last week’s collapse. S Badrinath’scheeky four turned the crowd gung-ho again, before his dismissal switchedthem back to nervy. The very next delivery, though, Raina settled their worries by clubbing a no-ball for six to start the celebrations.Edgy Kallis
Jacques Kallis may have reclaimed the Orange cap with his fourthhalf-century of the tournament, but it wasn’t a classic Kallis inningstoday. He started off confidently, but couldn’t find the boundaries as theinnings progressed. In fact, his last three fours were all fortuitousoutside edges to third man. After failing to connect with five out of sixdeliveries in a row, he was dismissed attempting a sharp single off the seventh.