Jaya lights up wankhede

By V. BALAJI

Mumbai, May 14: Pundits who continue to call T20 a young man’s game need to rethink. Sanath Jayasuriya, a veteran approaching his 39th birthday left the Wankhede crowd delirious and the Chennai Super Kings dejected and in shock. Nine wickets was the margin as the Indians chased down 157 and notch up their fourth win on the trot.

It will remain a mystery on how bowlers around the world fail to sort out a select few batsmen irrespective of the numerous technological aides they have at their disposal. Jaysuriya’s breathtaking 114 off 48 balls (9x4, 11x6) hurried Mumbai home with 37 balls to spare, a huge number in this format.

It was a murderous assault by Jayasuriya that made it a no-contest. The Chennai bowlers were guilty with their plans, lines and lengths. Albie Morkel pitched it full to encourage the flick while Manpreet Gony dug in short to invite the cut over point.

A half a dozen sixes flowed from Jayasuriya while Sachin picked one as Mumbai raced to 78 in their first six overs. Chennai had managed 28 in their first six. The match was well and truly decided in that phase. The Mumbai Indians lived by the power play while the Super Kings died by it.

Dhoni paid the price for reposing faith on Morkel and Gony with an extra over when the field restrictions were on. As many as 41 runs leaked in thosee two overs. The lone success Chennai enjoyed was when Sachin played over a close delivery from Joginder Sharma who had come in for Amarnath.

Earlier after Sachin won the toss and elected to bowl Pollock set the tone with a good first over. Not offering any width or the length for the batsmen to take the aerial route he restricted the scoring areas. Ashish Nehra from the other end sprayed the ball on both sides and S. Vidyut duly collected three boundaries in the second over.

Just when it looked like Vidyut was constructing an innings of some proportion he top-edged a delivery from Pollock that was short of length. Stephen Fleming at the other end struggled to time the ball and was able to steal a few boundaries only when the ball was wide enough for him to go for the slash. Suresh Raina followed an away swinger from Bravo to wicket keeper Yogesh Takawale.

With strokeplay not easy, it became an uphill task for the Super Kings to score at even run a ball. No credit would be less for the Mumbai bowlers who exercised great control over length. Pollock’s first three overs went for nine runs. Fleming too flattered to deceive. After a rasping cover drive he chopped the next ball on to his stumps of Kulkarni. Kapugedera fell two balls later and Chennai were reeling at 46/4.

S. Badrinath and Dhoni took their time to settle. With only 57 on the board at the end of 10 overs, the situation called for some desperate measures from one of the two batsmen. Sachin did the right thing by bringing on Pollock for his last over. Dhoni was beaten by either movement or pace on five occasions as the South African bowled a maiden and the run rate dipped alarmingly.

There were signs of improvement as Dhoni found the gap twice of Rohan Raje. Badri got a streaky four of Nehra and the innings gained momentum. It was only in the 16th over did the Super Kings manage to get the run rate beyond six after the second over.

The last four overs were mayhem. Badri paddle flicked Nehra and Raje for a boundary each and was quick to respond to a short ball from Raje that he deposited over the mid-wicket fence, following up with a strong bottom-handed hit for a straight six.

Badri’s fluent knock put Dhoni in the shade. The partnership was worth 95 in 55 balls that gave Chennai a chance to compete on a wicket where the ball stopped a bit before coming on to the bat. But none could have predicted what Jayasuriya had in store.