Kings XI Punjab Win.

Football’s truism - money alone can’t buy you a winning team - found its echo in cricket as the Mumbai Indians, the IPL’s most expensive franchise, lost their third consecutive game in a row to find themselves one place above the bottom of the table. They were outplayed by Kings XI Punjab, who secured their first win of the tournament with a fine team performance studded by some moments of individual brilliance.

For all of that, this match had lots for the purist too, as it showed Test skills can be used to great effect in cricket’s newest format. Kumar Sangakkara used classical shots in his innings, while Piyush Chawla bowled attacking legspin to rattle the Mumbai batsmen and concede just 16 runs off four overs.

At the toss, Harbhajan Singh explained the decision to field first by saying his side preferred chasing. But their pursuit of a competitive, though not impossible, target was crippled by wickets falling at regular intervals - six wickets between the ninth and fifteenth overs - as the line-up, once again lacking Sachin Tendulkar, came up against some inspired Punjab bowling.

Leading the line was Brett Lee, who conceded nine runs off his four overs as he mixed scorching pace with athleticism and exuberance to dismiss the Mumbai openers. After crossing the 150kph-mark in his first over, he took a brilliant return catch in the next to remove Sanath Jayasuriya before running out Luke Ronchi off the following ball with a fluid diving throw, the batsman chasing after him a yard behind.

More athleticism was on display as Yuvraj Singh plucked out a blinding one-handed catch by stretching to left at covers to dismiss Shaun Pollock.

At the other end of the spectrum was the teenager Chawla, all twirls and swirls as he bowled Dwayne Bravo and Saurabh Tiwary with deliveries that stayed straight. His figures at the end read 16 runs off four, incredible for a spinner in Twenty20.

The most consistent display of class and grace came earlier in the day, from Sangakkara. Though he missed getting a hundred, Sangakkara managed to overtake Brendon McCullum as the tournament’s leading run-scorer - and he did it in style.

For his first scoring shot, a drive through extra-cover for four, he transferred his weight perfectly from back to front foot and then arrested his follow-through halfway through the shot. Out of place in such a setting, perhaps, but no one was complaining.

He used his wrists to great effect; to reach his fifty - off 23 balls - with a cut-glide to point and to flick to fine leg. And the purists would have been delighted when he was joined by Mahela Jayawardene, who thrilled with an equally wrist-driven flick for six to fine leg. Jayawardene, though, didn’t stay for long, and was caught for 12 trying to sweep fine. Yuvraj matched them in grace with a six driven over long-on. The biggest six of the innings, though, was hit by Lee - he lifted a fuller delivery off Dhawal Kulkarni in the final over high in the sky over long-off.

But barring Sangakkara, no other Punjab batsman built an innings of consequence - the next highest score was 18. Yet, if you look at their shots, Punjab’s batsmen look like they can entertain and deliver on a good day. Mumbai on the other hand will be desperately hoping Sachin Tendulkar is fit for their next match against the Deccan Chargers on Sunday.

Kings XI Punjab 166/8 (20/20 ov)
Rajasthan Royals 168/4 (18.1/20 ov)

A magnificent unconquered 76 by Shane Watson steered the Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win over the King’s XI Punjab in the sixth match of the inaugural IPL tournament at the Sawai Man Singh stadium here on Monday.

Watson, who smashed five fours and five sixes in his 49-ball knock was ably supported by Ravindra Jadeja who made an unbeaten 36 with the help of five boundaries and one six. The duo put an unbroken 69-run stand.

Chasing 166 Jaipur got off to a shaky start, losing Mohammad Kaif (five), Yousuf Pathan (seven) and Kamran Akmal (17) early. But then Darren Lehmann (17) after struggling in the beginning put 51 runs for the fourth wicket as Jaipur stayed in contention to clinch the game.

After Lehmann was nailed by Irfan Pathan, Jadeja and Watson not only ensured there no further hiccups in the Jaipur innings but also took the erratic Mohali bowling to the cleaners.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who had a horrid outing against Chennai was once again flayed, giving away 27 runs in his two overs. S Sreesanth accounted for 38 runs in his 3.1 overs as Watson and company took him apart.

Earlier, some disciplined bowling by Jaipur restricted Mohali to 166-8 in their allotted 20 overs.

Powered by skipper Yuvraj Singh’s 34-ball 57, the Mohali team managed a respectable total after Shane Warne’ men dominated proceedings for a sizable passage of the innings. 18 boundaries and seven sixes were hit during the innings courtesy a blazing start and Yuvraj’s flourish in the middle.

Karan Goel (26) got Mohali off to a flier clobbering three boundaries and two sixes before Munaf Patel, who received heavy punishment from the southpaw, cleaned him up with a yorker.

And then the introduction of spin turned the tide as Shane Warne sent back Kumar Sangakkara (20) and James Hopes (16) while Dinesh Salunke scalped Mahela Jayawardene (two) to reduce Mohali to 73-4.

Shah Rukh takes a shot at Preity. The Kings will answer in the match.

Monday, April 21, 2008
Start time 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals are both looking to open their account in the IPL after coming up second-best in Saturday’s matches. Punjab were undone at home by the brilliance of Michael Hussey but their abundance of riches means they are overwhelming favourites to win in Jaipur. Rajasthan, on the other hand, are enduring a frustrating wait for five of their foreign recruits. To add to their problems their less established players are not showing the mettle required to survive in this cut-throat competition, as was evident during their nine-wicket thrashing by the Delhi Daredevils.

With this being the first IPL match on a weekday, after Friday night’s opener, the size of the crowd will perhaps indicate whether the tournament has truly captured the imagination.

Watch out for …

… Punjab taking the early running, regardless of the outcome of the toss. If they bat first , they have the versatile James Hopes to give their innings a lift-off. With Kumar Sangakkara slated to walk in at No. 3, and captain Yuvraj Singh to follow, Rajasthan’s boundary riders are in for some hard work. Punjab’s opening bowlers, Brett Lee and Sreesanth, did not pose too many problems for the Chennai Super Kings, but they will be an entirely different proposition for Rajasthan. With Hopes and Irfan Pathan to follow-up, the going might just get tougher. An intriguing sub-plot to the contest will be a potential face-off between Irfan and his half-brother Yusuf, an aggressive presence in Rajasthan’s top order.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan will be eager to prove the critics wrong. They will be looking to Shane Watson and Darren Lehmann, and to Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Salunke, both of whom gave a good account of themselves in Delhi, to bring out the big hits. Mohammad Kaif may be a livewire in the field, but he needs to come good with the bat to have a real impact on the contest. Not many players will be queueing up to take the place of seamers Munaf Patel and Siddharth Trivedi, both of whom face a huge test with the ball.

Team news

Punjab’s line-up looks pretty settled and the only question of interest will be whether Mahela Jayawardene gets a game. With each team having a cap on four foreign players, the axe could fall on Simon Katich. Ramesh Powar may replace seamer Wilkin Mota if there is something in the pitch for the spinners, and Pankaj Dharmani can consider himself unfortunate if he misses out as he is yet to bat.

Punjab (probable) 1 Karan Goel 2 James Hopes 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk) 4 Yuvraj Singh (capt) 5 Mahela Jayawardene/Simon Katich 6 Irfan Pathan 7 Pankaj Dharmani 8 Brettt Lee 9 Piyush Chawla 10 Wilkin Mota/Ramesh Powar 11 Sreesanth.

Rajasthan, more due to circumstance than choice, will be forced to retain most of the team that played in Delhi. Graeme Smith may not be back from South Africa in time for the encounter, while Dimitri Mascarenhas, the England allrounder, will only be with the team for two weeks starting as late as May 12. The Pakistan trio - Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, and Sohail Tanvir, will fly to India on the day of the match after completing their Twenty20 international against Bangladesh on Sunday, and it is highly unlikely that any of them will play.

The home side struggled to get a move on at the beginning of their innings in the first match, and may draft in Niraj Patel, who averages 50 at a strike-rate of 132.74 from eight domestic Twenty20s, in place of Taruwar Kohli. Jaydev Shah possesses an equally impressive strike-rate of 159.25 in four matches, and he also may get a look-in.

Rajasthan (probable) 1 Niraj Patel 2 Yusuf Pathan 3 Shane Watson 4 Mohammad Kaif 5 Darren Lehmann 6 Ravindra Jadeja 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk) 8 Dinesh Salunkhe 9 Shane Warne (capt) 10 Siddharth Trivedi 11 Munaf Patel.

Stats and trivia

“We’ll just have to put runs on the board and pressure on Yuvraj,” was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s reason for batting first on what looked a dry pitch and 20 overs later his team had reason to feel confident. Walking in at No. 3 after Brett Lee’s pace and bounce accounted for Parthiv Patel, Hussey looked on as Matthew Hayden’s cameo came to end. Then Dhoni, the most expensive player in the IPL, flopped for 1 though replays suggested an inside-edge onto pad. But Hussey, preferred to Stephen Fleming today, was immediately dancing down to hit Lee through extra cover and past midwicket.

His cool head and ability to put away the average deliveries kept runs ticking over on a speedy outfield and his handling of the slow bowlers was superb. Piyush Chawla wasn’t allowed to settle, his first ball sailing over mid-on for six, and Suresh Raina took a cue with a pull for maximum and a lovely straight-driven four. The Hussey-Raina stand, a blend of soft-handed pushes and some crowd-pleasing pulls, yielded 66 in five overs. Raina’s 32 from 13 balls was a powerful effort before he fell attempting a fourth six.

Hussey, however, wasn’t flustered by the loss of wickets. Hopes was hit for a straight six, Wilkin Mota’s military medium was clubbed over mid-on, and Hussey celebrated a drop by Sreesanth with ten in two balls. Irfan Pathan took his second wicket by yorking Jacob Oram - a dismissal which was celebrated with a raucous din - but Hussey motored on with effortless biffs down the ground. His seventh six, again lofted straight, took him into the 90s and two balls later the landmark was duly reached with a single off Lee. It took just 50 balls. Hussey celebrated with two more sixes and, with some help from a gung-ho S Badrinath, Chennai took 25 off the final over.

Hopes took to Punjab’s daunting target with steely-eyed gusto, adding 56 in 5.5 overs with Karan Goel. He was quick to latch on to anything fractionally short, the pick being flat sixes over backward point and deep square leg off Manpreet Gony. Hopes raised a 24-ball half-century, the fastest of the tournament, to keep Punjab near the asking rate. Dropped by P Amarnath off his own bowling, Hopes hammered Joginder Sharma for powerful boundaries and with Kumar Sangakarra sensibly farming the strike, he even slogged Muttiah Muralitharan for six. But Amarnath had his revenge when long-off held an easy catch and with that, ultimately, went Punjab’s hopes.

The run-rate was more than 13 when Yuvraj joined Sangakkara, and two scorching sixes were followed by a tame hit down long-on’s throat. Sangakkara swung the bat around during a feisty 54, meshing paddles and pulls with aplomb, but fell to Murali in the 18th over as the chase was snubbed.

The tournament opener in Bangalore began and ended with Brendon McCullum’s blitzkrieg but Hussey proved there was plenty of oomph to go around with a spectacular hundred of his own. His brother David, who famously ribbed him for fetching a higher price, made just 12 in the first match and you can imagine his sibling sending him a text message after this stunning effort. The IPL is certainly abuzz.

More on CricInfo

The opening ceremony was a spectacular affair, but what followed was even more breathtaking, as Brendon McCullum destroyed the home team in the inaugural match of the IPL. In what was a brutal one-man assault on the Bangalore Royal Challengers, McCullum blasted an unbeaten 158 from a mere 73 deliveries, the highest score in a Twenty20 match, to propel Kolkata Knight Riders to an imposing 222 for 3. The punch-drunk Bangalore team was in no condition to fight back after that battering, and collapsed limply to 82 to lose by an embarrassing margin of 140 runs, the fourth-largest defeat in this sort of match.

Chris Gayle was expected to be the aggressive opener for Kolkata, but McCullum’s stunning knock ensured Gayle’s absence wasn’t felt at all. In an innings which was reminiscent of Gayle’s blistering knock in the World Twenty20 opener - he had scored 117 from 57 - McCullum gave the Bangalore bowlers no chance. Pace and spin were both treated with equal contempt, and the crowd was treated to an innings of rare explosiveness.

More on CricInfo.com

It was blitzkrieg today as McCullum smashed the Royal Challengers attack to all corners en route to a record T20 score.

* Runs 158
* Balls 73
* SR 216.43

Amazing!