MetroMaaZa 14

If Matthew Hayden was surfing in the Indian Ocean on Friday, he was flying at the St George’s Park on Saturday. And that was enough to end Mumbai Indians’ chances of making the semifinals of IPL Season Two.

Not that Sachin Tendulkar’s boys did anything wrong on Saturday; just that they were killed by an assassin who knows a little too well how to go about his job.The 148 that Mumbai presented as a target wasn’t an easy one on the St George’s pitch, but Hayden was on a mission to take his team to the semis.He was slow off the blocks, but that seemed a tactical ploy.He was determined to bat till the end and attack the Mumbai Indians bowlers after the strategy break.

If Hayden scored an unbeaten 60, he squeezed out close to 20 more through the way he batted.It was due to his tendency of walking down the pitch that ‘keeper Yogesh Takawale had to stand up to even the pacers and when they erred in line, the ball invariably rolled on to the boundary down the leg or off Hayden’s pad.Tendulkar did his best to get the wicket of Hayden, but that was not to be.All the Aussie needed was somebody to bat around him, and Team Chennai has that in abundance.If Suresh Raina gave the initial push, S. Badrinath came up with a gritty 22 in the middle, and towards the end, it was skipper MS Dhoni.

There couldn’t be cooler heads around than that of Hayden and Dhoni under pressure and Team Chennai never looked under pressure, even when the asking rate went up to 10.The big shots came just when they were needed.JP Duminy, though, did his bit with the bat so that they could make a match of it.Sanath Jayasuriya, who got back to open the batting, got the innings off to a blazing start.The Lankan was playing well but Sudeep Tyagi induced a false shot to remove the dasher.Tendulkar, too, looked keen to get things moving, but he couldn’t keep a sweep down and was caught in the deep.

It was from there that Duminy (62) and Abhishek Nayar (33 no) took charge. The duo batted with authority and were not afraid to use their feet to the spinners.Duminy hit a six to bring his half-century and the best thing about his knock was that he never gave it away.

Video Source: DVD
Host: Zshare
Chapters: 20

Toss

1st Inning: Mumbai Indians
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8
part 9
part 10
part 11
part 12
part 13
part 14
part 15
part 16
part 17
part 18
part 19
part 20

Alternate 1st Innings:
part 1
part 2

2nd Inning: Chennai Super Kings
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8
part 9
part 10
part 11
part 12
part 13
part 14
part 15
part 16
part 17
part 18
part 19
part 20

Alternate 2nd Innings:
part 1
part 2

Presentation Ceremony