Kochi silence Mumbai's roar

Kochi Tuskers Kerala 184 for 2 (McCullum 81, Jayawardene 56) beat 
Mumbai Indians 182 for 2 (Tendulkar 100*, Rayudu 53) by eight wickets

Two weeks ago, the crowd at the Wankhede was delirious though a fervently anticipated Sachin Tendulkar century didn't materialize. On Friday, the same crowd went home dejected despite Tendulkar crafting his first Twenty20 century, as Kochi Tuskers Kerala busted their party with one of the most memorable chases in IPL history.

Two of the world's finest Twenty20 batsmen, Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene, constructed chalk-and-cheese half-centuries to power Kochi's pursuit of 183. Both perished to Lasith Malinga's deadly deliveries but Kochi, who had stumbled in the final stretch of their first two games, didn't slip up this time as Ravindra Jadeja and Brad Hodge muscled boundaries to finish the game with an over to spare.

Tendulkar's effort checked off another item on his ever-shrinking to-do list, and Mumbai ran up a tall total without needing contributions from Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Kieron Pollard. It was then assumed that the bowlers would make the rest of the game a formality, but McCullum firmly put that assumption to rest by muscling three boundaries between mid-off and cover in Malinga's second over. The next big jump came in the sixth over from Pollard as McCullum swatted a four past midwicket and Jayawardene eased boundaries behind square on either side of the wicket.

The Mumbai fielding made things worse for the home team. Rohit Sharma dropped McCullum at first slip off the first ball, and Jayawardene was given a life by Ali Murtuza at backward point.

McCullum kept skating out of the crease and lashing the ball through the off side right through his innings, while Jayawardene was content shuffling across and using the bowler's pace, rarely powering the ball. The difference between the two batsmen's innings was highlighted in the ninth over as McCullum smashed the first ball over long-off, and Jayawardene reverse-paddled the fifth ball off the back of the bat for four.

With dew making it difficult for the bowlers to grip the ball, both batsmen kept picking off the boundaries. Kochi were in command by the 14th over as they moved to 128 for 0 when Jayawardene deftly poked a Malinga delivery past the keeper towards a delighted Kochi dug-out. Next ball, Malinga removed Jayawardene with a yorker which prompted a surprise promotion for Jadeja. McCullum, though, kept Kochi on top with a couple of scythed boundaries in the 17th over that worsened Pollard's evening.

With 27 needed off three overs, and nine wickets in hand, Mumbai gambled by bringing on Malinga for his final over. He delivered by bowling McCullum first ball, but Hodge eased Kochi's anxieties with two walloped boundaries off the rest of the over. Jadeja, who has received plenty of criticism over the past two years, then justified his promotion with a couple of swiped sixes off Murtaza Ali to finish off Mumbai with an over to go.

It was the Kochi's franchise first IPL win and Mumbai's first defeat of the season, a result few predicted after Tendulkar had combined power and placement to reach a memorable century. It, however, came after a nervy start: Tendulkar was nearly run out on 0, umpire Paul Reiffel turned down two lbw appeals from Vinay Kumar which should have been given. There was also a close call for caught behind, and an outside edge off Thisara Perera that just beat the keeper.

Mumbai made relatively sedate progress, reaching 57 in eight overs before losing Davy Jacobs. The in-form Ambati Rayudu immediately took charge, blasting two sixes off Raiphi Gomez. A series of powerfully hit straight boundaries took him to 44, when the partnership had realised 64.

The final five overs turned into a Tendulkar show as he plundered 45 runs. Tendulkar showed how he could finesse the ball or force it depending on his mood: in the 16th over, a short ball on legstump was helped over fine leg for six, and a length ball outside off was pummelled over long-on for six more as 20 came off the over. A helicopter shot for four and a slugged six over midwicket took him to 90 after 19 overs.

Tendulkar proceeded to paddle a four past short fine leg, and bludgeon another past long-on before reaching his ton with a push to cover off the final delivery of the innings. The decibel levels shot up in the stands, but it was a muted celebration from Tendulkar himself on reaching the milestone.

Neither he nor the crowd were celebrating at the end of the game. One of the bigger worries for a formidable Mumbai unit was how dependent their attack was on Malinga's form, something they will have to address after losing despite a solid batting effort.

Gambhir-Kallis blitz blows Rajasthan away

Against Chennai, Gautam Gambhir held himself back, coming in late at No. 6 and making one run. The Kolkata Knight Riders captain showed greater sense today in coming one-down, hammering 75 (44b) to set up a nine-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals.

It was the most brutal Gambhir innings in recent times. Coming in at the quick fall of Manvinder Bisla, the Kolkata captain launched an all-out attack on Rajasthan. He stepped out to loft Nayan Doshi for a six to get the innings going before taking four fours in an Amit Singh over. A 28-ball fifty was completed. At the other end, Jacques Kallis calmly collected 80 (65), his third fifty in a row in the tournament, to win back the Orange Cap.

Royals captain Shane Warne had no answer to this powerful build-up. Gambhir and Kallis added 152 unbeaten runs to finish off the chase. The nervousness that marked Kolkata's approach in previous games seems gone. Their dug-out seemed a happy place. With their second win, they've jumped into the top-four.

Earlier in the day, Kolkata elected to field here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Rahul Dravid and Ashok Menaria built up Rajasthan nicely with a steady 52-run stand. Rajasthan had Ross Taylor and Shane Watson to follow. Yusuf Pathan bowled one over in which he dismissed Dravid and Menaria both.

Taylor (35 off 22b) and Watson (22 off 13b) brought out the big hits, but this was a flat wicket and 159-4 seemed under-par.

And here's a snippet from the match that stood out as a reminder that there's place for old school trickery in a game where spinners are prone to dart the ball into batsmen's pads.

In the 17th over by Shakib Al Hasan, Watson slog-swept a six. It was the second time Watson had sent Shakib over the ropes today. Shakib by now must have been sick of Watson. In the recently concluded ODI series between Australia and Bangladesh, Watson hit 20 sixes in three matches.

The Bangladesh captain's response to that six was another delivery in the same hitting area. It was a little flat but not quick through the air. Watson set himself up for another slog-sweep. But this time, the ball dipped, turned nicely past Watson's bat, and crashed into the stumps.

Shakib celebrated knowing exactly what he had pulled off. He could have fired in a fast ball and perhaps restricted Watson to a single. But he invited the big hit and took the wicket. It probably saved Kolkata about 20 runs. In the end, maybe this is why they won.

Kolkata Knight Riders 160 for 1 (Gambhir 75*, Kallis 80*) beat 

Rajasthan Royals 159 (Dravid 35, Taylor 35*) by nine wickets 

Deccan break jinx, win big vs RCB

Accurate spells of fast bowling from the entire cast of seamers helped Deccan Chargers inflict a convincing 33-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have now suffered two losses in a row. In the process, they laid to rest the curse of never having won a match at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in history of the IPL.

Chasing the second-highest total in the tournament so far, Bangalore's batsmen looked hapless throughout and had it not been for a battling half-century by Virat Kohli, they would have ended up in tatters. The four-man seam attack of Dale Steyn, Manpreet Gony, Ishant Sharma and Daniel Christian combined ruthlessly picking up eight of the nine Bangalore wickets.

Tillakaratne Dilshan started off with a streaky boundary, a thick outside-edge off a seaming delivery from Ishant that raced through third man. But Ishant pitched the next ball perfectly on a length and hit the seam hard. Dilshan slashed wildly only for a thin edge to travel into the gloves of Sangakkara, who eventually ended the evening with five catches. If Sangakkara made the right decision to bowl Ishant's four overs in one spell, Steyn - acting as the on-field bowling coach - made sure the Indian kept hitting a good length and avoided getting distracted bowling bouncers.

A surprise move, actually ridiculous, by Bangalore to send Zaheer Khan in at No. 3 lasted three deliveries, before Steyn demolished the Indian's furniture with a fast swinging full toss. Mayank Agarwal tried pulling hard against a short-pitched delivery from Gony which climbed too fast and was caught easily at mid-on. AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary, two proven match-winners, had miserable evenings. The South African was deceived by Gony's outswinger and Sangakkara happily accepted another offering behind the stumps when Tiwary tried to slog sweep against the legspin of Amit Mishra, but ended up skying an easy catch, pouched safely once again by the Hyderabad captain.

Only Kohli lasted the distance, keeping a calm head on his shoulders, while picking the right balls to hit to keep Bangalore's flame of hope from being doused early on. A few good shots - including a raging straight six charging Mishra, and a fierce slog-sweep to go to fifty - were the highlights of his innings. But except for Cheteshwar Pujara, who should have batted up the order, none of the Bangalore batsmen applied themselves to stand up to the challenge.

If Bangalore's batting seemed out of sorts, the Hyderabad men were solid and certain. Barring Shiktar Dhawan, who failed for the second match in a row, the rest of the hosts' batsmen played smartly and kept pushing the run-rate consistently.

Having failed to convert his starts in the first two matches, the onus today was on Sangakkara to keep the middle order intact. And he came up with his most fluent innings to date, playing with a straight bat while building a valuable 50-run alliance with Sunny Sohal for the second wicket, which was the highest for any wicket for Hyderabad so far in the tournament.

Sohal hit the first six of the match and then got out attempting a second one, but Sangakkara played with measured aggression. He took advantage of a couple of easy full-tosses from Daniel Vettori early on, then rotated the strike smartly to keep the pressure on the bowlers, before charging Dilshan to hit an elegant six straight over the bowler's head, his best shot. If Bangalore felt they could wrest the control after Sangakkara's (tame) exit - he tried to chip a fuller and wider delivery from Johan van der Wath - Chipli quickly washed away those aspirations.

He had started with two powerful pulls, both off the back foot, one a six (against Dilshan) and next over a four (off S Arvind). But his biggest victory came when he got the measure of Zaheer.

The bowler of the World Cup was smashed for 22 runs in the nine balls Chipli faced. The onslaught included four fours, the last three coming back-to-back. The first one was slapped straight down the ground to the sight-screen, followed by a bottom edge which raced past the fine-leg ropes. And when Zaheer tried a sleight of hand by coming up with a slower delivery, Chipli, with a steady head, punched a handsome cover drive for another four to march to two runs short of a half century, which he duly completed. It was an innings of impact which caught Bangalore by surprise, and set his team up for that elusive first home win.

Deccan Chargers 175 for 5 (Chipli 61*, Sohal 38, Zaheer 3-32) beat RC Bangalore 142 for 9 (Kohli 71, Steyn 3-24, Gony 3-31) by 33 runs