The IPL encounter between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings was rightly billed as a contest to see which side would blink first. The reasoning behind this being the absence of respective skippers of the two sides – Gautam Gambhir out with a hamstring problem and MS Dhoni injured in the last game that Chennai played. Inadvertently the spotlight was on the two stand-ins Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina, neither of the two having any worthwhile experience of leading on the big stage. 
Karthik though has led his state side Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy for quite some time but it is altogether a different ball game leading in the IPL. For Raina, one can only recall the Challenger Trophy – a pitiful domestic ODI tournament – where he might have led somewhat accidentally. Make no mistake none expected the duo to shine with their man management skills on the day and they didn’t disappoint.
Setting lax fields was a common point with both. Raina kept both point and backward point in position for the Delhi openers with the third man also up and placing an odd sweeper on the off as cover. All the batsmen needed to do was clear the infield and the way Virender Sehwag blasted his way to 74 off just 38 balls showed how spectacularly these field placements failed. Karthik for his part made sure that the two fielders he could place outside the circle in the first six overs were at deep point and deep backward point, making sure that for Mathew Hayden, things were as easy as they were for Sehwag. For most of the forty overs, fine leg and third man were also up in the circle making one wonder since when was T20 about taking wickets? That saving runs is a priority clearly didn’t dawn on the two stand-ins.
There were a couple of other odd decisions as well. At one point, Raina forgot that he could only place two fielders outside the circle in the first six overs and Sehwag cleverly bludgeoned the ball for four before pointing out to the umpire. Karthik meanwhile kept Amit Mishra out of the attack but brought on Tilakratne Dilshan, a decision that baffled everybody and anybody present.
Amidst this tomfoolery, the onus was on the batsmen aforementioned, Sehwag and Hayden, as to who would seize the initiative given to them and take their side to victory. The former Australian opener replied to Sehwag’s fifty in his own trademark style. His 93 runs off 43 balls were – putting it mildly – a lesson in hitting hard and timing the shots, for a majority of those runs came with his hallowed Mongoose Bat. The pint-sized willow made its long awaited debut on an evening to remember. One of the three sixes off Dilshan almost ended outside the stadium, the last row being the spot where the ball landed.
Not everyone was sure previously that the smaller bat wouldn’t cause a hindrance to batting. But when Hayden finally left the field with Chennai on the doorstep of victory, all were convinced that this latest innovation to hit cricket packs quite a punch.
This article was first published at www.cricketworld.com.
