It was a match decided by one team’s opening partnership and the other’s lack of it.

Delhi Daredevil skipper Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir wouldn’t have minded the fact that the Chidambaram stadium loyalists didn’t applaud their highly entertaining 115-run stand since the bigger prize for them was to break the aura of invincibility around IPL runaway leader Chennai Super Kings.

World cricket has been quite used to seeing the team in yellow dominating the shorter version of the game and same was true for shortest form so far. But the dynamics of the tournament are about to change. Since Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men’s first defeat — rather an annihilation considering it was a 8-wicket romp by the Daredevils — happens to be their first game without opener Matthew Hayden a new debate has opened.

Can the Super Kings find a worthy replacement for Matt the Bat? Since that’s a tall order, the more viable alternative for Dhoni will be to change his game plan. The Super Kings saw their old set pieces of ‘batting first and keeping a couple of big hitters for the final slog’ hit the wall without Hayden at the top.

Daredevils’s plan was a touch different. Openers Sehwag and Gambhir knew that they had a better chance to chase the target if they gathered momentum before Muralitharan came into the attack. The ploy worked as the Daredevils reached the target with AB de Villiers batting (26) and Shikhar Dhawan (19) remaining unbeaten.

... contd.