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'Golden oldies' Hayden, Murali sparkle for Chennai

Monday, April 20, 2009

Matthew Hayden
Cricket 'golden oldies' Matthew Hayden and Muttiah Muralitharan powered Chennai Super Kings to a 92-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers on Monday in the Indian Premier League.
Australian Hayden, who departed the international scene recently at the age of 37, struck a sizzling 65 at Saint George's Park in this southern coastal city before being run out by Rahul Dravid.
The departure of Hayden just one ball after fellow opener Parthiv Patel was out for 30 did slow a Chennai charge that saw them dash to 106-0 after 10 overs, but they finished on 179-5 to set Royals a challenging target.
Enter Sri Lanka wizard Muralitharan to cause havoc and snap up three wickets, including the prized one of former England captain Kevin Pietersen for a duck, and all the damage was inflicted at the expense of just 11 runs.
Bangalore were in trouble from the start, losing opener Praveen Kumar in the third ball of the innings and quickly fell behind the nine-run-an-over victory target.
South African Jacques Kallis made a quick 24 before becoming the next Chennai victim and by the 'strategy break' the Challengers needed a miracle as they languished at 56-5 with 10 overs completed.
There was no miraculous turnaround, only more Chennai wickets on the same track that produced a bucketful of runs when South Africa trumped Australia in an ODI clash last week.
Kallis finished as top scorer and opener Robin Uthappa and Dravid contributed 20 runs each as Bangalore slipped from top spot after the opening round to fifth while 2008 runners-up Chennai climbed two places to third.

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