Chennai run out of pluck

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.

Sehwag opened with his trademark slice that went over the six-footer MS Gony at third man. And by the time he eventually got out to the same shot, Sehwag had scored 71 from 41 balls with four sixes and seven boundaries in a 50 minute show. Sehwag moved around the crease to keep the bowlers guessing. He first moved outside the leg stump to make space and hit on the off side. And when the bowlers changed their line, he smartly shuffled towards the off stump to hit on the on-side. Gambhir too was in his elements. He hit shots through cover-point region and straight down the line to further boost his Bradmansque T20 averages with his eighth half-century that came in 37 balls. The 100 came off in just 8.5 overs.

In contrast, Super Kings openers struggled to get off the blocks. Parthiv Patel and Stephen...