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Sunday, May 4, 2008

Jaipur take top spot after Tanvir heroics (IPL Match 24: Sohail Tanvir Bowls 6 wickets world record)

Sohail Tanvir's wrong-footed swingers demolished the powerful Chennai Super Kings on Sunday night.

The Rajasthan Royals left-armer had figures of 6-14 --- the best in all T20 cricket --- and helped dismiss Chennai for 109 runs here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The Royals chased down that total with minimum fuss in an eight wicket win, with thirties from Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar. They now lead the pack in the Indian Premier League, with five wins from six games, displacing Delhi Daredevils.

Tanvir's dream spell got off to a flier in the first over of the match. He had two LBWs --- Parthiv Patel off the first ball, and Stephen Fleming off the fifth.

The Pakistan seam bowler then added S Vidyut in his second over, poking one to slip into Shane Warne's hands at a time when Jaipur turned the heat on, operating with two slips till the tenth over of the innings.

Tanvir came back for a second spell in the in the seventeenth over and delivered two slower ones to castle Albie Morkel and Muttiah Muralitharan.

At this stage, four balls into his third over, Tanvir's figures read 5-2, and Chennai at 96-9 were down and out.

Tanvir then bowled out Makhaya Ntini off his last delivery in the game to complete his sixer. It beat the previous record of 6-15, created by Sanjeewa Abeywardene for Panadura SC vs Sri Lanka Air Force in 2005.

Both sides have come into this game with eight points each. A win would take them to ten --- more than any other side in the IPL.

Chennai had elected to bat on a wicket that had a lot of bounce. In between Tanvir's wickets, S Badrinath was beaten by Shane Watson's extra bounce, and skied a return catch.

Then Warne brought himself on, and struck the blow that hurt Chennai the most. He got Super Kings captain MS Dhoni to drive with the spin and edge it to slip. It was a classic leg spinner's dismissal.

It was Munaf Patel's turn to get among the wickets. Two poor shots, first from Suresh Raina and then from Joginder Sharma --- who hadn't batted in the IPL thus far --- gave Munaf two wickets in an over.

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