 Balaji takes hat-trick to bowl Chennai Super Kings to victory
11th May 2008 09:00 IST
Agencies
Lakshmipathy Balaji registered the first hat-trick of the Indian Premier League to help Chennai Super Kings assert their supremacy over Kings XI Punjab and beat them by 18 runs in Chennai Saturday night.
Balaji claimed five wickets, including a hat-trick in the last over of the match, and gave away just 24 runs in his four overs to seal his team's victory.
Put in to bat, the Chennai team piled up a competitive 181/4, thanks to superb batting by Subramaniam Badrinath and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and then restricted the visitors to 163/9 in their quota of 20 overs.
Balaji provided crucial breakthroughs early and then got his hat-trick in the last over, in which the visitors required 27 runs for the victory.
Opener Shaun Marsh (58) hit a blazing half-century but that was not enough to earn a revenge victory for his team as other batsmen let the visitors down.
Marsh's innings came off just 38-balls with three boundaries and four sixes including a towering one, which landed on the roof of the stadium, off Muttiah Muralitharan.
Like their opponents, the Punjab team also had a bad start losing two early wickets with James Hopes (14) and Karan Goel (1) departing early.
Marsh and Ramnaresh Sarwan (20) did try to bring their team back in the match as they put together 64 runs for the third wicket. But Balaji, star bowler for the hosts, removed both of them in one over to deal severe blow to the visitors hope.
More disaster was waiting for the Punjab team as skipper Yuvraj Singh (2) too started his walk back to pavilion after he found Stephen Fleming off Palani Amarnath at point.
The visitors lost three wickets in space of seven deliveries and that wrote the fate of the Punjab team.
Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla hit some lusty shots towards the end but that just helped in reducing the defeat margin.
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