IPL: Chennai Too Strong for Mumbai

Afternoon all, and welcome our latest IPL OBO.

Yup, that's all the preamble you're getting I'm afraid. I'm too engrossed by Pommie Mbangwa's pitch report.

MS Dhoni spins the coin, and Harbhajan wins the toss. He's opted to bowl first. Harbhajan is filling in as captain for the injured Sachin Tendulkar. Dhoni is busy making out that he would have opted to bat first anyway, so he doesn't care about the toss anyway, nyah-nyah-nyah.

Here are the teams: Chennai look like this: ML Hayden, PA Patel, MEK Hussey, S Badrinath, SK Raina, MS Dhoni, JDP Oram, Joginder Sharma, P Amarnath, M Gony, M Muralitharan

And Mumbai look like this: L Ronchi, ST Jayasuriya, RV Uthappa, VS Yeligati, AM Nayar, SM Pollock, MA Khote, Harbhajan Singh, A Nehra, DS Kulkarni, DJ Bravo.

1st over: Chennai 7-0 (Patel 6 Hayden 0)So it is one of India's forgotten talents, Parthiv Patel, who is facing the first ball, to be bowled by Shaun Pollock. It's a wide to start, most uncharacteristically for Pollock. "Can I say that I feel I am really missing out on the IPL by not having the time or the subscription to watch the matches?" Indeed you can Gary Naylor, and I hope that our intermittant offerings are some compensation for you, "I seem to be in a minority of one in being as big a fan of Test cricket as ever, but loving T20 in all its guises. PS I never thought you looked like that! (Fellow OBOers, click on (this bit deleted on grounds of excessive modesty Ed) for a photo of the great man)." Patel takes a four through mid-on, and flicks a couple more out that way from the sixth ball.

2nd over: Chennai 16-0 (Patel 14 Hayden 1)I agree with Gary on that: we've had plenty of comment on what this all means for the future of cricket, but very little on the tournament itself, which, at the very least, is great fun to watch. Hayden is spared from being run-out only by the waywardness of the incoming throw, and Patel then slices four runs over slips. The final ball is punched down the ground for four, rather more orthodox, runs.

3rd over: Chennai 34-0 (Patel 14 Hayden 15)Ronchi comes up to the stumps in anticipation of Hayden trying to bully Pollock by coming down the pitch at him. Hayden counteracts by shoveling the ball over Ronchi's head and away to fine leg for four cheap and ugly runs. Blow me that's an extraordinary shot! Hayden eases a drive into for six into the second tier of the stadium, in an extraordinarily nonchalant display of power. He lines up the next and clubs it straight past Pollock's head and down the ground for four. As if things weren't cruel enough for the bowler, the next ball beats everyone, keeper included, and runs away for four byes.

WICKET! Patel c Ronchi b Nehra (3rd over: Chennai 35-1 (Hayden 15 Hussey 1)Nehra bags the wicket of Patel, having him caught behind off the kind of loose shot that it is the privilege of a Twenty20 opener to get out to. Hussey and Hayden are together in the middle then, which is a shame because, as Ravi Shankar has pointed out "the massive height difference between Patel and Hayden was like watching Gulliver batting with a Lilliputian." A good over from Nehra keeps Hayden off strike and Hussey on zero. One more dot ball and this will be a wicket maiden, the second of the whole tournament. Irritatingly, a misfield at cover gifts Hussey a single and spoils all that.

WICKET! Hussey 5 b Kulkarni (4th over: Chennai 40-2. Hayden 15 Raina 1)Pollock is told to do one down to fine leg so he can think about just what he's done. He's replaced by one of India's under-19 stars, Dhawal Kulkarni. Hussey steps down the pitch and slogs a square drive over extra cover for four, a really ugly shot... aha! And the bowler's revenge! Hussey tries another ungainly swat and succeeds only in chopping the ball onto his own stumps. Suresh Raina is in. Fascinating to think what wonders playing in this tournament is going to do for these young Indian cricketers. I'm just disappointed that Chennai have left out Napoleon Einstein, because that must surely be the finest name in cricket today.

5th over: Chennai 52-2 (Hayden 23 Raina 2)Hayden. Oh jeez Hayden. No one should be able to play shots like this: he walks down the pitch to Nehra and pulls him away for four through mid-wicket. A shot of awesome power. Reminiscent of that story about the time Bobby Fischer was caught playing chess anonymously online, asked afterwards how his opponent knew he was facing Fischer, he said: "no on else could use moves of such awesome power". Hayden mishits the next over point for another four, which spooks Nehra into coughing up a wide.

7th over: Chennai 63-2 (Hayden 23 Raina 2)OK sorry about this. Our shiny new internet tools have crashed so I haven't been able to tell you what's what. Sorry about this. I promise you that somewhere in the office right now packets of cheesy wot sits and copies of 2000AD are being frantically cast aside as out top techies get on it. It means we missed Harbhajan's excellent first over to Hayden.

9th over: Chennai 72-2 (Hayden 33 Raina 11)Dwayne Bravo is into the attack. I'm a big fan of Bravo: after he won a $10,000 play-of-the-match award in the Stanford 20/20 finals, he spent the rest of the day walking around with the huge novelty oversize check tucked under his arm. He even came down to breakfast with it the next day, wearing sunglasses and accompanied by a preposterously good-looking girl. Here though, Hayden has thrashed him through long-on for four.

10th over: Chennai 81-2 (Hayden 33 Raina 18)Harbhajan continues, and undoes two good dot balls with a wide full toss. Raina drops to one knee and thrashes it for six over extra-cover, the ball looping high into the dark night sky and down into the screaming crowd. The last two balls are both pushed out to Bravo at long-off for a pair of singles.

11th over: Chennai 91-2 (Hayden 39 Raina 27)"Will someone get under it?" asks Tony Cozier as Raina clubs an enormous six over cow corner. The answer is of course 'yes', and they'll be in the second tier of the stand. Bravo watches the ball go with the look of a boy admiring a disappearing butterfly. A pitch side interview between Cozier and Sachin Tendulkar descends into farce as Cozier says "244 in the first match and 95-2 here, I'm not sure your team needs you back Sachin!", to which the reply comes, "err, no, I play for the fielding team Tony". Nice.

12th over: Chennai 110-2 (Hayden 41 Raina 35)You know I find something mildly disturbing about the way the packed crowds are pressed up against metal fences pitchside, trying to peer past the throngs of bethonged cheerleaders and see the cricket: it all looks a little too much like forced entertainment in a prison yard. VS Yeligati - no me neither - comes on to bowl. Anyway it's his 23rd birthday today, and Suresh Raina has made him a present of a pair of fours, the second slogged over leg. The icing on the cake is a filthy leg-side wide next ball. Cozier exacerbates the impression that he doesn't have a clue whats going on by issuing a prolonged apology to Luke Ronchi for the fact that he's been mispronouncing his name for the last twenty minutes.

13th over: Chennai 123-2 (Hayden 48 Raina 41)"Frankly, should there be any cricket talk in the musings?" wonders Som Bandyopadhyay, "Shall we make it a criminal offense for whoever throws in cricketing insight?" Frankly back at you Som, I'd be grateful just for an email period, regardless of what the hell it's about. Which is why I printed yours. It is Sachin's birthday tomorrow, and we're getting more pitch side interview action with him. Apparently the team are organizing a birthday surprise for him, but he doesn't know what it is yet. Pollock is back on, and he's served up a waist-high full toss which Hayden brilliantly plays away for four with a reverse lap-sweep. Pollock looks thoroughly ticked off with all these shenanigans as Raina flicks another four to leg.

14th over: Chennai 137-2 (Hayden 55 Raina 49)Harbhajan tosses the ball to Abhishek Nayar, a right-arm trundler. His first ball beats Hayden's swipe and fixes in between Ronchi's thighs. The fielders appeal, twice, and replays suggest that Hayden did indeed edge the ball, but the umpire didn't notice and so the wicket isn't given. Raina, still out pacing Hayden, carts a lofted drive over long-on for six. A rank long hop it was too. Nayar then drops a simple caught & bowled chance next ball. Hayden beats his partner to the fifty with a pull over mid-wicket, the ball plopping down next to a startled looking group of sequin-clad male dancers. These two have now put on 98 runs from 57 balls.

WICKET! Raina 53 c Bravo b Khote (15th over: Chennai 143-3 (Hayden 56 Dhoni 0)Yet another bowling change as Harbhajan brings Musavir Khote on for a fiddle. He's the eighth bowler of the innings, the latest to take on a job which people seem strangely reluctant to tackle. Raina raises his own fifty by pushing a pair out to cover. He's finally out three balls later, slogging a catch to Bravo at long-off. Mumbai's relief lasts exactly as long as it takes them to look up and see that the new batsman is MS Dhoni. The crowd go wild for him, chanting his name over-and-over...

16th over: Chennai 158-3 (Hayden 61 Dhoni 9)Dhoni hops down the wicket and clips four runs behind point. Bravo has come back into the attack, and now he's relying more on his repetoire of slower balls and cutters. His line is all wrong though, and Dhoni wafts four more through fine leg. "Supposedly old Russell Crowe (who, by the way, is a cousin of Martin and Jeff the Kiwi cricketers) wants to invest in an IPL franchise," points out Ravi Shankar,"It will be interesting to see how Hollywood stars compare to Bollywood stars in terms of crowd reception." After a very long pause to reset the field, Hayden dismisses the ball for four through leg.

17th over: Chennai 168-3 (Hayden 67 Dhoni 13)Khote continues, thanklessly. Hayden thumps a four past long-off and the batsmen then trade singles off the five remaining balls of the over. The last ball is stopped from whistling away to the straight boundary only by the non-striker's stumps, which are dashed out of the ground by the force of Dhoni's drive.

18th over: Chennai 182-3 (Hayden 76 Dhoni 18)I hear a whack through my headphones and look around just in time to see the ball skittlign over the boundary and into the hoardings. "Cricket is cricket whatever the format and depends on core skills of batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy allied to brains. I'm willing to wager now that the players who will make the IPL T20 Select XI at the end of the tournament will be (within an ace) the same personnel as would fill an IPL Test Select XI." Gary Naylor might well be right... one to mull over in the brief innings break perhaps. Hayden is starting to go beserk in his own calmly controlled fashion: four to fine leg, four more down the ground, and he's hit 14 off the first four balls of the over. He picks out a fielder with the fifth, but even so Chennai have now scored more boundaries in thsi innings than any other team have managed in this competition, with 21.

19th over: Chennai 192-3 (Hayden 81 Dhoni 24)Nehra returns for a final over and pushes up some real dross, a high full toss which is not only no balled for being too high but is cut away for four to fine leg by Hayden. Som Bandyopadhyay continues to - in the best Naked Gun fashion, confuse me with someone named Frankly. "Frankly, there's zero chance that Hollywood could steal the crowd reception from the Bollywood stars. Even Rakhi Sawant (who probably ranks 2349 in popularity) is more of a household name in India than that Crowe." Dhoni eases four to fine leg and adds two from the last ball.

WICKET! Hayden run out 81 WICKET! Dhoni 30 c Bravo b Khote (20th over: Chennai 208-5 (Oram 4 Badrinath 2)Last over then, and it's being bowled by Khote. Hayden is run out, quite brilliantly, by Harbhajan. Hayden went scampering after a single but Bhajii beat him with a dead-eye throw. It allows Jacob Oram in to have a crack at tht final five balls of the innings. If Dhoni is prepared to give him any strike that is... Khote pushes up a yorker and Dhoni leans back and lifts the ball over the bowler's head and away for six down the ground. A marvelous shot that. More dawdling with the field setting means Harbhajan has gone way over his allotted time for the innings here, 15 minutes beyond to be precise. Very frustrating tardiness. Oram makes a mockery of the fielders' deliberations by crashing the ball through cover for four regardless. Dhoni falls to the penultimate ball, well caught by a high-leaping Bravo at long-on. Badrinath then has the last ball, which he hits away for two.

Well Mumbai are going to have to go some to get near that, an awful lot resting, you sense, on Sanath Jayasuriya and Robin Uthappa.

WICKET! Ronchi 2 run our Badrinath 1st over: Mumbai 9-1 (Ronchi 1 Jayasuriya 5)The fielders and umpires are out in the middle, and eventually they're joined by the batsmen. If Mumbai are to get near this total, they need a grand opening from these two. My mood is improved tenfold by the discovery that cups of fruit jelly are on offer at GU Towers' buffet bar. Armed with a cup of that and a can of ginger beer, I'm fortified for the second innings. "Has anyone told the IPL that 20/20 is meant to be played in three hours with 80 minutes allowed per innings? Have I missed a rain shower in this one, or has the first innings really lasted 110 minutes?" grumbles Tom Innes, quite correctly. Jacob Oram is opening the bowling. As Jayasuriya carves a cut away for four past point, the innings is off and running. Mmmmm. Jelly. Two wides in this first over now. Oh dear... Jayasuriya runs out Ronchi with a poor piece of calling, leaving him stranded mid-pitch and Badrinath hurls down the stumps with a throw from cover point.

2nd over: Mumbai 13-1 (Jayasuriya 5 Uthappa 0)After four leg byes, a good pair of balls from Manpreet Gony to open this over, darting back in towards the pads from outside off stump. Badrinath, the man who made the run out, is wearing a truly exceptionally funky thick yellow sweatband, and here he pulls off a fine diving stop to save a four and make it five dot balls in succession.

3rd over: Mumbai 25-1 (Jayasuriya 16 Uthappa 1)"That," observes my fellow desk-bound sports hound, Barney Ronay, "is a crap batting line-up". And indeed it is, what with Pollock, Bravo and Harbhajan at 4,5, and 6. A good thing then, that they have Sanath, who lumped one four over mid-wicket and scythed another through cover here.

WICKET! Jayasuriya 20 c b Gony. 4th over: Mumbai 31-2 (Uthappa 1 Pollock 0)Dhoni moves a third fielder into point for Gony's second over. Jayasuriya responds in the best possible fashion by flicking a ball from outside off away to leg for four. Ah blast. Just as I was beginning to fantasise about the prospect of something truly extraordinary from Jayasuriya he shovels a catch straight up in the air, tucking his bat under his arm and walking off while the ball is still aloft. The shortcomings of Mumbai's batting are already exposed then, with Shaun Pollock coming in to bat at four.

5th over: Mumbai 50-2 (Uthappa 21 Pollock 0)Brilliant batting from Uthappa. Two fours are followed by the 100th six of the tournament so far, struck straight down the ground. The last ball is late cut for four, and a single from the final ball means that Oram - normally so parsimonious - has gone for 19 from this over.

6th over: Mumbai 52-2 (Uthappa 22 Pollock 1)Gony is bowling very well indeed here: a fine line and soem awkward bounce. It all adds up to a string of dot balls, blemished only by singles from the fourth and sixth balls.

7th over: Mumbai 57-2 (Uthappa 25 Pollock 3)Joginder Sharma comes into the attack, and Pollock whomps his first ball away for one to deep backward square. Mumbai now need 155 from 81 balls. That ticks down by one more on each side as Pollock dabs a run to backward square. Uthappa takes two from the last ball, but otherwise it's a little sluggish from Mumbai after that rally two overs back.

8th over: Mumbai 68-2 (Uthappa 32 Pollock 5)Gony is going to be bowled through here, which is a luxury that Dhoni can easily afford given that he has four overs of Muralitharan up his sleeve. A full toss is tapped away for one, and a yorker blocked away for another, but Mumbai really need to accelerate sometime soon. "It's pretty much been a lot of story-telling, a lot of old war-stories" is Stephen Fleming's description of what it's been like to share a dressing room with Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey. Uthappa finds the boundary rope for the first time in the last three overs with a squirt to third man.

9th over: Mumbai 75-2 (Uthappa 37 Pollock 7)Palani Amarnath, who has played only eight first class games, comes on for a bowl. After he's eased into his spell by conceding nothing more than a pair of singles, Uthappa slashes four runs with a vicious pull towards cow corner.

WICKET! Uthappa 43 b Sharma. 10th over: Mumbai 81-3 (Pollock 8 Bravo 1)We seem to have lost sound on the TV, which is frustrating. A quick thump on the side of the box soon fixes that. Uthappa thrashes four runs through cover with glorious panache, but then... he's clean bowled, playing outside the line and watching the ball slide between bat and pad into the off stump. Dwayne Bravo is in then.

11th over: Mumbai 90-3 (Pollock 10 Bravo 2)Oh. Some chap called Muralitharan is coming on, and it might not be too long not before this match is done and dusted. He'll be bowling to Pollock first up. One thing Murali does have to contend with is the dew, and how unusual... Murali has bowled three successive leg side wides to open his spell, the ball seems to be slipping from his grasp as he bowls.

WICKET! Pollock 17 b Amarnath. 12th over: Mumbai 99-4 (Bravo 2 Nayar 1)Mumbai need 119 from 54 balls. And at last Pollock frees his arms and hits the ball, hard and deep for six over extra cover. It had been 11 singles for Pollock before that. Sadly, he's clean bowled next ball. The chump chopped the ball off his inside edge onto his thigh pad and into his stumps. Abhishek Nayar is in. Bravo hoists a single up and over towards square leg.

13th over: Mumbai 109-4 (Bravo 11 Nayar 1)Ah, well Bravo hasn't given up: he belts a glorious six over long-on with a marvelous flourish of the back leg as he hit the ball, a little like a fancy-dan ten-pin bowler. Mumabi now need 102 from 46 balls.

14th over: Mumbai 130-4 (Bravo 24 Nayar 12)Nayar, who I'll be honest about and confess I've never heard of, is launching a counter-attack here. He's thrashed four through cover, and then picked up five courtesy of four overthrows which deflected off Bravo's bat as he slid it into its ground. That puts Bravo on strike and he too smacks successive fours, one high over square leg. he chips a catch just beyond the infield from the final ball and they run three. That makes it 20 runs from Amarnath's over.

WICKET! Bravo 24 c Oram b Sharma 15th over: Mumbai 133-5 (Nayar 13 Khote 3)What a catch! Brilliant fielding from Oram, who runs in from long-off and dives forward to pouch Bravo's long lofted drive. He gets a handshake from the loitering ball boy by way of thanks.

WICKET! Khote 9 c Raina b Muralitharan. 16th over: Mumbai 147-6 (Nayar 18 Harbhajan 0)Khote drops onto one knee as if to make a proposal to the bowler, and instead swats a staggeringly-sized six over backward square leg with a cross-batted slog. And then, as has happened so often in this innings, he falls next ball, caught at long-off. Bah. Nayar leathers four with a pull, but this is all a little forlorn.

17th over: Mumbai 168-6 (Nayar 33 Harbhajan 8)Harbhajan batters a six over Jacob Oram's head at long-off and allows a broad grin to spread across his face in the afternath. That is quickly wiped off his face as he tumbles to the turf in agony after hitting the ball into his own instep. He's prone on the turf and, much as I'm sure it hurts, this is turning into an extremely tedious end to the game. After a long break, Nayar reminds me that actually there is still a game on by bunting four past mid-wicket and driving six down the ground.

18th over: Mumbai 181-6 (Nayar 33 Harbhajan 21)That was 21 from that last prolonged over, giving Amarnath the most expensive figures in the competition so far, 4-0-57-1. So Dhoni has turned back to Oram. It pays off at first, with a pair of dot balls, but then Bhajii collars one for six over long-off, and he's picked the next two, heaving it away over extra cover for six. Terrific striking by Harbhajan here. Mumbai need 28 from 12.

WICKET! Harbhajan 28 c Badrinath b Muralitharan 19th over: Mumbai 189-7 (Nayar 34 Nehra 0)Muralitharan comes on for the penultimate over, and as the batsmen push for two off the first ball the throw comes in from backward point, Dhoni collects it and whips off the bails, but Harbhajan's fine dive saw him make his ground by a mere inch. 26 needed from 11. Murali psyches Harbhajan by running up to bowl and then pulling out to see what the batsman is planning on doing... the next ball goes for a single, as does the third. 24 needed from 9 balls. And there are four of them! A fine cover drive played on the walk by Harbhajan. And he's out next ball, which might just spoil this close finish. He slogged high, but not long, and was caught at long-off.

19th over: Mumbai 189-7 (Nayar 35 Nehra 0)19 runs needed from the last six balls, and Nayar on strike. Joginder Sharma is the man charged with bowling the last over. Nayar bashes the first ball away over backward square for four. 15 needed from 5....

And he's crashed the next ball for another four, to the other side of the field, a cracking drive played off one knee, his teammates on the boundary go crazy. 11 needed off 4.

And it's a no ball from Sharma! What an error! He's gifted Nayar a free hit! Just nine needed from four balls!

So, a long pause while Dhoni sets his field for the free hit. And Nehra has squandered it! He's swung and missed. What a waste! Still, it's nine needed from four balls.

Nehra gets the single he needs and puts Nayar on strike with eight needed from two balls.

And it's a dot ball, and the game is over.

Well that's all she wrote. Which is what I've just been told to write by way of a closure. This match is an hour late in finishing, and while it was good, it wasn't all that good. So I'm off. Thanks for your company and I'll see you around these parts sometime soon.