Aussie speedster Brett Lee played his first match. But he was hit for three fours in his first over by West Indies captain Chris Gayle. Kings XI Punjab tasted success in the third over when Gayle was dismissed. It was 45/2 with young Hardeep Singh being held at mid-on. Ganguly and Tiwary resurrected Kolkata Knight Riders innings with a 79-run stand for the third wicket. Ganguly completed his half century but was out at the same score, spooning a catch to long off. Leg spinner Piyush Chawla, who has been selected for the World Twenty20 championship, bagged the wicket of Australia hard-hitting batsman David Hussey, who was beaten in the flight to be bowled. Kings XI Punjab looked liked containing the Kolkata Knight Riders for a below 150 target. But Tiwary changed the script with his lusty hitting in the last two overs.

When Kings XI Punjab began the chase, Yuvraj Singh came out to open with Ravi Bopara. But Kiwi Shane Bond struck with the second ball of the innings to claim England opener Ravi Bopara. Yuvraj Singh (24 off 16 balls) struck three fours and one six before he was brilliantly caught by Manoj Tiwary at deep mid-wicket off Ajit Agarkar. The former Indian medium pacer claimed his second wicket and this time David Hussey held a low catch at mid-off to dismiss Manvinder Bisla. Playing in his first match, Agarkar captured two wickets in two overs.  Mahela Jayawardene (16)  fell to a poor shot to be bowled by his Lanka team mate Angelo Mathews. Skipper Kumar Sangakarra followed his former Lankan skipper, stumped while playing a clumsy pull shot for 30, and Kolkata Knight Riders were on course for victory.

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Orange Cap holder Jacques Kallis looked shaky today. His run-spree finally ended when he was dismissed for a 17-ball 19 in the fifth over.  Chennai Super Kings who started off very well, lost the way from the 15^th over, thanks to Robin Uthappa, who single handedly changed the script with some bold batting. Royal Challengers Bangalore blasted 41 runs in the last two overs with Uthappa all guns blazing. The hard-hitting Uthappa, dropped at 5 and 25, made most of those chances, when he went berserk in the 19^th over, clouting 4, 6, 6, 6 as medium pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji leaked as many as 24 runs in that over. Uthappa’s blitzkrieg overshadowed off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan, Sudip Tyagi and Albie Morkel splendid bowling. Muralitharan was outstanding as he scalped the wickets of Rahul Dravid (bowled), Manish Pandey (caught in the deep) and Virat Kohli (stumped) to finish with figures of 3/25. But Muralitharan snatched the Purple Cap for his performance, from his fellow countryman Chaminda Vaas (Deccan Chargers) to emerge as the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with nine wickets.

The Chennai Super Kings batting fell apart chasing 172 runs for victory. Swing bowler Praveen Kumar dismissed Parthiv Patel in the first over. But Royal Challengers Bangalore dealt a severe blow to Chennai Super Kings’ hopes in the 10^th over when Rahul Dravid ran out the dangerous Mathew Hayden for 32. It was a brilliant throw from short covers to the non-striker’s end that caught Hayden off guard. The impressive Vinay Kumar made it 59/3 in the same over by packing off Tasmanian George Bailey (18). The medium-pacer scalped his second wicket by having Chennai Super Kings skipper Suresh Raina caught at deep third man. The match slipped further away from Chennai Super Kings’s grip when leg spinner Anil Kumble sent back Murali Vijay (74/5).  Chennai Super Kings could never recover to lose their second match in succession.

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Skipper Sourav Ganguly and West Indies skipper Chris Gayle opened the innings in place of Manoj Tiwary and Brad Hodge, who were both dropped for this match. They made a sedate start, putting on 70 runs in 11 overs. Ganguly was bowled for 31 by Harbhajan Singh who went on to finish a fine spell of 4-0-17-1. Gayle opened out after reaching his 50, which came off 47 balls.  Kolkata lost their second wicket in the 20^th over when Zaheer Khan bowled Owais Shah.  Shah (31 off 23), promoted in the batting order, added 82 runs in 8.2 overs with Gayle, who was declared lbw off the last ball off Zaheer by Sanjay Hazare. Gayle justified his selection with a 60 ball-75 as Kolkata Knight Riders put up 155/3.

The Mumbai Indian’s chase of 156 runs began in right earnest as left-hander Shikar Dhawan, who came out with Sachin Tendulkar in place of Sanath Jayasuriya who was rested for the game, set the tone by slamming three fours off New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond. Tendulkar followed it up with same number of fours against Ishant Sharma. Tendulkar continued his onslaught as Mumbai Indians raced off to 50 in 4.2 overs.  Left-arm spinner Murali Karthik provided the first breakthrough dismissing Dhawan for 23 (21 balls, 4×4) against the run of play, as he played a loose shot to be caught at short mid-wicket. Saurabh Tiwary made a quick-fire 24-ball 30, while Kieron Pollard the next batsmen in, was dismissed cheaply with the Mumbai Indians cruising home quite comfortably in the end

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Earlier, Amit Mishra opened the attack and bowled Madhya Pradesh Ranji opener Mohnish Mishra, who came in place of the injured VVS Laxman, with a googly in the fourth ball of the innings. Deccan Chargers skipper Gilchrist (24 off 14 balls) made yet another explosive start. Sarabhjit Ladda, the second leg spinner, got his big wicket. Herschelle Gibbs hit a 26-ball 31 but his innings was cut short thanks to a fine catch all rounder Moises Henriques, who came in place of out-of-form TM Dilshan. The aggressive Symonds was also out to Henriques and Deccan Charges were reduced to 103/4. However, Rohit Sharma and T Suman were associated in a 60-run stand for the fifth wicket. Sharma played a hard-hitting and fast-paced innings for his 30-ball 45 while Suman stayed till the end to score another useful 19-ball 29 as the Deccan Chargers put up a competitive 171/6.

The Chargers captured the big scalp of Virender Sehwag in the fourth over and he only made a seven-ball three, caught by Herschelle Gibbs off Pragyan Ojha. David Warner smashed a 33-ball 57 before he was run out by a throw from short fine leg by RP Singh while AB de Villiers missed a full toss to be bowled by Rahul Sharma for 27. Deccan Chargers bounced back into the match by taking the wickets of Mithun Manhas and Moises Henriques. Dinesh Karthik kept Delhi Daredevils’ hopes alive with a 27-ball 46 (4×4, 2×6) but Andrew Symonds swung the match in Deccan Chargers’s favour by taking the wickets of Karthik and Amit Mishra off successive deliveries. Vaas bowled a great last over to seal the win for the Deccan Chargers.

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Mumbai Indians were made to work hard for runs from the start as only 37 runs came from the first five overs. Sanath Jayasuriya was back in the pavilion in the second over itself. Aditya Tare of the Mumbai Indians was the second wicket to fall at 36, when he attempted to play a feeble pull shot off the wily Kallis to be caught at short mid-wicket.  Saurabh Tiwary (25 off 21 balls), who came into the match with two successive half-centuries, could not get his third when veteran Anil Kumble out thought the left-hander with a well-disguised googly. Ambati Rayudu was then caught behind to the hard-working Vinay Kumar. His next wicket was the big scalp of Sachin Tendulkar (25 off 22 balls), who exposed his stumps for a pull shot, missed it completely to be bowled. Three balls later West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo was plumb in front to give Vinay three wickets in his third over. The Bangalore Royal Challengers were on top stifling the Mumbai Indians batting for runs with the score on 76/6 in 11 overs. Vinay Kumar completed his dream spell of 4-0-25-3.  Rajagopal Satish and Kieron Pollard revived their teams hopes with a 47-run stand for the seventh wicket. But Steyn dealt a double blow by dismissing both the batsmen in one over. The Mumbai Indians eventually reached 151/9 in 20 overs thanks to nine-ball 23 by number ten batsman Zaheer Khan.

Royal Challengers’ opening pair of Manish Pandey (40 off 27 balls) and Jacques Kallis put on 85, which pretty much ensured the end for the Mumbai Indians who got their first break through in the 10^th over. It was too late as Royal Challengers Bangalore then romped home in style with the loss of Pandey, Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli’s wickets. Orange Cap holder Jacques Kallis (66 not out off 55 balls, 10×4), the tournament’s highest scorer with 264 runs, guided Bangalore Royal Challengers home for a comfortable win and to the top of the leader board with six points.

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Rajasthan Royals chose to bat but got off to the worst possible start as opener Michael Lumb was out first ball to Ashok Dinda. New Zealand pace bowler Shane Bond dismissed Faiz Fazal for 31 (23 balls). Naman Ojha (27 off 18 balls), who gave the momentum to the Rajasthan Royals, was run out going for a risky second run. Dinda brought back for his second spell bounced out Yusuf Pathan who pulled it straight to mid-wicket fielder for 15. However, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (45, 36 balls, 5×4) and Adam Vogues (37; 22 balls, 2z4, 2×6) batted aggressively to take the Rajasthan Royals to 168 for seven. Rajasthan Royals lost three wickets for two runs but Vogues struck some lusty blows in the end overs.

Defending 168 runs, Rajasthan Royals bowled tight and fielded hard to restrict the Kolkata Knight Riders to 134/5 in 20 overs.  They executed their plans to perfection and Warne made some inspiring bowling changes as the Kolkata Knight Riders could never get the momentum going as their batting fell apart. Skipper Sourav Ganguly made a valiant 29-ball 33.

After losing their first two matches, the Shane Warne led Rajasthan Royals had their best match in this year’s campaign while the Kolkata Knight Riders succumbed to their second successive defeat.

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Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist slammed a 12-ball 33 hitting two sixes off Sreesanth 51 runs today. But Gilchrist’s innings was cut short when he top edged left-arm seamer Shalabh Srivastava and was caught at short mid-wicket by Jayawardene. Deccan Chargers suffered a setback when VVS Laxman got injured in a strange circumstance when Srivastava threw the ball wildly from mid-on that got Laxman’s forearm. The batsman had to retire hurt for 10.  Although Rohit Sharma (run out) and left-hander Anirudh Singh were out cheaply, Herschelle Gibbs made a 23-ball 23, Andrew Symonds struck his second successive half century (38-ball 53) and T Suman played a cameo knock of 26 (22 balls) as Decccan Chargers reached 170/7.

Kings XI Punjab were off to a disastrous start as purple cap holder left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas swung the ball late and captured two top order wickets (Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh) as MS Bisla was run out to have Punjab reeling at 22 for 3 in the fifth over. Ravi Bopara, Kings XI Punjab’s main run-getter, could score only a 32-ball 38 before he was caught in the deep of off-spinnner Rohit Sharma. West Indian opener Adrian Barath, on his IPL debut, made only seven before falling to local hero Pragyan Ojha. However, it was left-hander Irfan Pathan (60 off 29 balls) who fought a lonely battle to create some element of hope for the Kings XI Punjab with his lusty hitting. Pathan took the match to the last over. But his fine rearguard innings ended when the surprise last over choice bowler Jaskaran Singh had him caught at deep mid-wicket. The twentieth over that Jaskaran bowled was incidentally his first of the game.

Kings XI Punjab have so far lost all their first three matches while Deccan Chargers have finally notched a home victory in three seasons of IPL.

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Virender Sehwag (74 off 38 balls) gave a sparkling start to Delhi even as he lost Australian explosive opener David Warner who came in place of the injured Gambhir. He brought up his 50 in 22 deliveries while Delhi’s 50 came in the fifth over. Delhi were cruising along but at 102 when Muralitharan provided twin breakthroughs at a crucial juncture of the game.  He got Tilakratne Dilshan to play a false shot and one run later Sehwag was caught by Justin Kemp. R Ashwin then sent back AB de Villiers for 2 as the Daredevils lost three wickets in space of five runs.  Mithun Manhas (32 off 22 balls) and all-rounder Rajat Bhatia (21 off nine balls) provided a late flourish as Delhi somehow managed to post a challenging total of 185/6.

But the evening belonged to the burly Hayden and his Mongoose bat. After two failures, the former Aussie opener toyed with the hapless Delhi Daredevils bowlers. He launched into the attack in the fifth over hitting his first six off Rajat Bhatia and then in the eighth over, Dilshan faced the wrath of Hayden’s bat as he was clubbed for three sixes as the 50 for the Chennai Super King’s was raised in 5 overs and then the 100 came in 10 overs. With Suresh Raina, Hayden added 50 runs in 23 deliveries. Delhi Daredevils finally dismissed Hayden with Dilshan bringing off a superlative catch at long on and then Chennai Super Kings lost two more wickets of Justin Kemp (bowled) and Albie Morkel (caught at mid-wicket) but Raina with a 34-ball 49 not out saw the team through with five balls to spare.

This was the second successive win for Chennai Super Kings, sans their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, while Delhi Daredevils tasted their second defeat in a row.

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Praveen Kumar’s hat-trick came in the 17^th over of the innings. The swing bowler’s first victim was Damien Martyn (bowled), debutant Sumit Narwal (caught in the deep) and Paras Dogra (bowled) with his second, third and fourth deliveries of his third over. This was the seventh hat-trick of the three-year-old IPL tournament.

Earlier, put into bat, Rajasthan batsmen struggled as Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Kallis contained the openers Naman Ojha and Lumb, scoring just 27 runs in five overs.  Rajasthan Royals had the slowest start of the tournament so far, scoring 45/3 in 10 overs.  The big-hitting Yusuf Pathan broke free by clubbing Vinay Kumar for two sixes in the 12^th over. But he was back in the pavilion, run out for a 24-ball 26 as Kohli broke the stumps with a brilliant throw from covers. Martyn (19 off 24 balls), who was a pale shadow of his playing days, got his first boundary after 22 deliveries but was yorked the next ball by Praveen Kumar who then completed his hat-trick.

Orange Cap  holder and man-of-the-match Jacques Kallis (44 not out, 34 balls, 7×4), the tournament’s highest run-getter with198 runs, and Manish Pandey (42 not out, 30 balls, 7×4, 1×6) completed the formalities with 56 balls to spare.  Bangalore Royal Challengers have chalked up their second successive win while Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals tumbled to their third defeat on the trot.

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Tendulkar cracked 11 dazzling fours to give the Mumbai Indians just the sort of start they needed. His 50 came off only 23 deliveries, which saw the Mumbai Indians gallop to 50 in just 4.3 overs.  Tendulkar’s innings came to an end when substitute  fielder Yogesh Nagar, who came in place of the injured Gamhir, held a low catch off leg spinner Amit Mishra. Nagar had earlier pulled off a spectacular catch to dismiss opener Sanath Jayasuriya, leaping high in the air to take a spectacular one-handed catch.  After Tendulkar’s departure, the tall Saurabh Tiwary and the impressive Ambati Rayudu were involved in some lusty hitting. The fourth wicket pair stitched 71 runs in 34 deliveries before Rayudu was superbly snapped at long-on by Dilshan. However, the left-handed Tiwary completed his second successive 50, which came off only 31 deliveries. Mumbai Indians hence posted a massive 218/7 in 20 overs, which incidentally is their highest score in the IPL thus far. It was also the Mumbai Indians second successive 200 plus score in IPL 2010.

Delhi Daredevils, in reply, were never in the hunt as they were dismissed for 120 in 16.3 overs. Delhi Daredevils batting fell apart once T Dilshan and Virender Sehwag were back in the pavilion in the seventh over. Dilshan was done in by a slower one by Lasith Malinga to be bowled. Then the dangerous Sehwag, after hitting a typical 16-ball 26, was caught in the deep off medium pacer Dwayne Bravo. The tricky Bravo scalped his second wicket in the same over by bowling AB de Villiers, which pretty much took the wind out of Delhi’s sails. Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who did not get enough opportunity with the bat, made their presence felt with the ball.

This incidentally was the first first defeat for the Delhi Daredevils in three outings in IPL 2010, while Mumbai Indians recorded their second consecutive win to be placed at the top of the leader board.

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