Easy victory for Chennai Super Kings (IPL - 11th Match - Kolkata KR v Chennai SK - Kolkata Batting)

Matthew Hayden has been literally raiding the kitchen at the plush hotel the Chennai Super Kings are staying in. The Aussies opener, an accomplished cook, is freaking out on Indian dishes. He has found the appetiser that triggers an insatiable craving for runs.

For the second game running Hayden towered over the bowlers. He seems to have taken a liking to the ‘Orange Cap’, worn by the player with most runs at any point in the tournament.

Brendon McCullum donned the cap after overhauling Kumar Sangakkara’s tally during the early part of this game. Hayden and McCullum will play in the IPL only for a few more days as they have to join National duty. Till they leave the battle between the two should go down to the wire. Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds and Mike Hussey will be hot on the chase.

Hayden now has 176 runs from three games against McCullum’s 187. McCullum smashed 24 off 12 balls, Hayden made an unbeaten 70 off 48 balls in the battle between two of the most high profile sides.

In the end MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings won by nine wickets. The 86-run partnership between Dhoni and Hayden sealed the verdict for the home team in chase of a modest total as Ganguly’s Kolkata Knight Riders tasted their first defeat of the IPL.

Though the batsmen took centre stage it was New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram’s three wickets, including that of McCullum and Ricky Ponting that set up the game for the Super Kings. It must have been a heartening sight for the hapless bowlers in this format of the game to see Oram take the Man of the Match honours.

However, there was very little to cheer for the Knight Riders’ bowlers as Hayden and Parthiv Patel put on 66 for the first wicket, before Dhoni joined the Australian in the middle. Kolkata needed someone to play a big knock and seize the early initiative but that never happened.

In a practice game before the IPL kicked off Laxmi Ratan Shukla hit 36 at a strike rate that hovered around the 200 mark before retiring. At the M Chidambaram Stadium he didn’t have the freedom to throw his bat at every ball. Kolkata’s leading knights weren’t at their best. Ponting and T20 specialist David Hussey didn’t open their accounts; Sourav Ganguly wasn’t at his fluent best. Early on, only McCullum’s cameo raised hopes of a huge total.

On Saturday, all-rounder Shukla, who in his formative years was tipped to be the next big thing, played a leading role in his side’s recovery. McCullum had smashed 16 runs off one Manpreet Singh Gony over.

Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha hit three consecutive fours off medium-pacer Palani Amarnath. From Shukla there were four boundaries; not in a flurry but spaced out, and also a flat six over mid-wicket off Joginder Sharma.

Shukla after taking his team to a respective total was run out in a bizarre fashion. Ishant Sharma was left stranded beside him following a misunderstanding but Shukla strayed out of his crease and Joginder took off the bails and uprooted the stumps at the non-striker’s end and MS Dhoni appealed at the right time.

It meant that Shukla was out. It was a cruel end to a fighting innings but then nothing really went the Knight Riders’ way. Maybe things would have been different if Shah Rukh Khan was here to cheer his team.