There were doubts about his fitness, and when he was picked in the Chennai Super Kings squad, many were surprised. Laxmipathy Balaji had last played for India in August, 2005. A career-threatening injury had put him completely out of action.

But today, playing only his second game in the tournament, he astounded everyone with a five-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, the Indian Premier League’s first, as Chennai beat Kings XI Punjab by 18 runs. Balaji’s triple treat came in the last over of the match, off which the Mohali team needed an unlikely 27 runs. Pathan hit a six off the first ball, a low full-toss, but could only manage a single off the second.

Piyush Chawla pulled the third straight down deep square-leg’s throat, while VRV Singh’s premeditated pull off a misdirected leg-cutter ballooned to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Three in three, and figures of 4-0-24-5 saw Balaji walking away with the Man of the Match award.

Until the final few overs, Mohali had seemed to keep up with the chase, especially when Shaun Marsh was going along at one end with Ramnaresh Sarwan holding up the other. Balaji snared both Sarwan and Marsh in quick succession, and things went downhill from there.

Badri joins the party

The Man of the Match award Balaji got might just have gone to another man had the medium-pacer not performed those last-minute pyrotechnics. Not many can question Subramanium Badrinath’s record in domestic cricket. He has excelled at every opportunity for Tamil Nadu and India A. And yet he has always missed the Indian team bus.

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