Hayden propels Chennai Super Kings to league leaders

The Chennai Super Kings' superior run rate, thanks to Hayden who with 378 runs is the leading run scorer of the tournament and holds the Orange Cap, has them above the Rajasthan Royals, with whom they share the league lead on points. The two have both played nine matches, although the Delhi Daredevils have played two games less and are just one point in arrears.

The game went down to the wire after rain reduced the match to an 18-over apiece affair. Hayden, who had been batting when the rain came down and was on 37, merely accelerated after he returned, shrugging off the loss of S. Badrinath off the first ball of the match.

Hayden and Suresh Raina put on 76 for the second wicket, and then Hayden and captain MS Dhoni, who scored 56 off 27 balls, put on 100 for the third wicket. Hayden's 89 came off 58 balls with six sixes and eight boundaries. The Chennai Super Kings scored 185/3, while the Kings XI Punjab fell just short on 174/3.

"It was a lot of fun, I had some luck," said Hayden. "I was supported well by M. S. Dhoni tonight. MS gets some great power from unorthodox shots. It's great playing in this form of the game because you play without some fear and that suits my game."

Both Hayden and Dhoni though had some warnings for the Chennai Super Kings team-mates, who dropped some easy catches on the night. MS Dhoni put down Yuvraj Singh when he was on 19 and the Kings XI Punjab captain scored 58, one of his sixes off the bowling of Pretoria local Albie Morkel disappearing out of the park.

"We need to lift our fielding at this point at the tournament," said Hayden.

"It's important to be cool," agreed Dhoni. "We dropped too many catches and at this level you can't afford to do that. The ball was coming on, the spinners weren't getting anything. We are repeating the same mistakes again and again in dropping catches. It was a close game we could have lost. Hayden is brilliant, he knows his strengths. He likes to dominate the bowlers and he has given us the kind of start that is needed. It's great to capitalise on the start that is given and that is what we have been doing. Still, we need to work on our fielding."

Singh felt a total of 160 would have been defendable, but after Sunny Sohal was out for two on the second ball off the innings, Simon Katich blasted 50 off 25 balls to give the Kings XI Punjab hope. But it was just not enough.

"We almost got through in the end," said Singh, "but could not hit enough in the last two overs. About 160 or 170 would have seen us through. We need to be sharper, we dropped too many catches as well, and left too many questions unanswered. I need to brush up on my batting as well we all need to go better."