It was practically a must win situation for both sides. It was pulsating, the pendulum swing from one end to the other. Eventually, Rajasthan Royals prevailed by the slender margin of two runs off the second last ball.

In effect, Mumbai Indians now hope they clinch their remaining two games and the slight cushion they enjoy of a point from a no-result, coupled with an improved run rate, will re-introduce them into the reckoning.

In probably the most crucial clash of the competition so far, Mumbai’s experiment to open with Dwayne Bravo on Tuesday was an unqualified success. It failed today. He played a non-existent shot to a rising delivery to be caught and bowled by Munaf Patel, who finished with two for 22.

The gamble with Yogesh Takawale at the top of the order also backfired. The crisis deepened; and at 23 for three, Mumbai were back to their seasoned duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

But it was tough going against some tight bowling. 43 balls went by without a boundary and this led to a rash stroke by Jayasuriya against the deceptively juicy Shane Warne, which popped up to short midwicket. The Australian wizard grabbed three for 24.

Number six was, arguably, too late for Jean Paul Duminy to enter. He played on trying to run down Siddharth Trivedi (who distinguished himself with figures of two for 19) to thirdman.

So the spotlight focussed on Tendulkar. He danced down the track to hoist Yusuf Pathan for six. But more exquisitely, he drove down the ground for fours of consecutive balls at the expense of Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin.

Warne now put himself on the firing line. Tendulkar attempted to play across a leg break, missed, and was leg before for 40. It seemed to be curtains, but it wasn’t.

Abhishek Nayar conjured an 18-ball 35. This left-hander gave himself room to carve Botha over extra cover – a superb six. But missed the next ball, attempting to repeat the shot, strayed out of his crease and was run out.

Munaf Patel bowled a terrific final over, which not only produced three wickets – two of them run outs – but decisively kept Harbhajan Singh largely away from the strike.

It was a slower wicket than the one for the Royal Challengers-Super Kings match; and Graeme Smith and Rob Quiney were cruising quite smoothly, when Harbhajan persuaded an unconvincing pull from Smith which finished down midwicket’s throat.

Pathan appeared at number three, drove the ball cleanly and with candour. But tempted by new face Chetanya Nanda’s leg spin, he swept straight into the hands of square leg. It was the only over Nanda bowled, giving away four runs.

But left-hander Quiney was out to make a mark. He pulled Duminy to square leg for six; and when Bravo erred in length, he swivelled around to land the leather over the fine leg fence. He reached 51 off 40 balls when Lasith Malinga flattened his leg stump. The Aussie tried to give himself room to hit into the off-side. The delivery was just too quick and of yorker length.

Jadeja advanced to 42 off 32, which included a pull to midwicket off a shorter ball from Bravo. But in the final over, when a major offensive was the need of the moment, he fell short.

He launched into Jayasuriya off the very first ball, but only found Bravo at long on. From 141 for four at the beginning of this over, Royals slid to 145 for seven, with the Sri Lankan veteran helping himself to a couple of wickets. 

Scoreboard

Rajasthan Royals

Quiney b Malinga 51

Smith c Duminy b Harbhajan 19

Yusuf c Malinga b Nanda 17

Jadeja c Bravo b Jayasuriya 42

Chitnis c Nayar b Bravo 6

Ojha c Rahane b Jayasuriya 1

Botha not out 2

Warne run out 0

Extras (lb 3, w4) 7

Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 145

Fall of wickets: 1-43 , 2-65, 3-126 , 4-141, 5-142 , 6-144, 7-145

Bowling: Kulkarni 4-0-29-0, Malinga 4-0-28-1, Bravo 3-0-30-1, Duminy 3-0-17-0, Harbhajan 4-0-31- 1, Nanda 1-0-4-1, Jayasuriya 1-0-3-2

Mumbai Indians:

Bravo c & b Munaf 1

Takawale c Ojha b Trivedi 18

Rahane c Raut b Warne 3

Jayasuriya c Yusuf b Warne 16

Tendulkar lbw b Warne 40

Duminy b Trivedi 4

Nayar run out 35

Harbhajan not out 7

Kulkarni lbw b Munaf 1

Nanda run out 0

Malinga run out 0

Extras (lb 3, w 14, nb 1) 18

Total (all out; 19.5 overs) 143

Fall of wickets 1-9 , 2-23 , 3-23 , 4-56, 5-76 , 6-103, 7-140 , 8-142 , 9-142.

Bowling : Yusuf 3-0-25-0, Munaf 3.5-0-22-2, Trivedi 4-0-19-2, Warne 4-0-24-3, Botha 4-0-32-0, Jadeja 1-0-18-0. 

You would think when a side is bundled out for 129 that victory would be merely a formality for the opposition. But the fight and fright Chennai Super Kings gave to Royal Challengers Bangalore before bowing by two wickets in the third last ball of the match indicated a steely resilience.

Royal Challengers needed the win more and are now in the running for a semifinal place. It would, however, be surprising if Super Kings didn’t make the last four.

When Challengers batted, Jacques Kallis was unfortunate to be adjudged leg before wicket - the ball probably struck outside off stump and he was playing a shot. No such sympathy could be extended to Rahul Dravid, as he failed to drop his wrists on a rising delivery to be caught at point.

Albie Morkel, opening the bowling for Super Kings, benefited from the first; and followed up by trapping Robin Uthappa lbw. He conceded only 14 runs before leaving the field with stomach trouble.

The introduction of spin helped Virat Kohli. He was let off, though, when Mathew Hayden misjudged a catch at long on. To add insult to injury, the batsman procured a maximum (one of two) to midwicket in Muttiah Muralitharan’s same over. But the Sri Lankan showed his class to induce an outside edge with a doosra to dismiss Mark Boucher.

A superlative catch diving forward by Jacob Oram at midwicket terminated Kohli’s 35-ball stay (he scored 38) and his 56-run partnership with Ross Taylor. The latter had patiently shepherded the reply, once even belting a slower ball from Lakhsmi Balaji to midwicket for six, to reach 46 off 50 balls, until he top-edged a pull in the second last over to create a bit of panic.

Eventually, tail-ender Vinay Kumar secured the winning runs, albeit a little comically. Praveen Kumar had previously exceeded expectations by blasting Balaji to long on for half a dozen.

The wicket generated a bit of bounce, which is what you would normally expect at this ground. It was something, Hayden (top scorer in the match with 60 from 38 balls) relished, but not so much the Indians.

Using his height, reach and power, the Aussie left-hander menacingly walking out to medium pacers - as if they were trundlers! He took three boundaries off Vinay Kumar’s first over, then full toll to long on off a short ball outside off stump from Praveen Kumar.

Roelof van der Merwe felt the brunt of the onslaught, as well. He was swung to the onside for two maximums. In the interim, Hayden reverse swept Vinay Kumar to signal his 50.

The only man he couldn’t collar was Anil Kumble. And this old Indian war horse (who finished with figures of two for 12) finally got him - brilliantly caught one-handed by Vinay Kumar at deep midwicket as the batsman mistimed.

Hayden’s run aggregate in the competition is so far ahead of others, there seems little possibility of him surrendering the ‘orange cap’, which he proudly wears when he fields.

Kallis shrewdly bent his back. Murali Vijay top-edged a hook; and Suresh Raina pushed one to short midwicket off his ribs. Kallis’ return was two for 18.

Dhoni, too, was less in control, though he ultimately perished to an incredible return catch by left-arm spinner van der Merwe - diving to his wrong side.

Royal Challengers took eight competent catches and caused two runs outs. As for Super Kings, they committed the cardinal sin of not batting out their quota - they only lasted 19.4 overs. 

Scoreboard

Chennai Super Kings:

Vijay c Uthappa b Kallis 5

Hayden c Vinay b Kumble 60

Raina c van der Merwe b Kallis 13

Dhoni c & b van der Merwe 18

Oram c Boucher b Vinay 7

Badrinath c Uthappa b Kumble 2

Morkel c Kumble b Kumar 9

Jakati not out 7

Balaji c Kumble b Vinay 0

Muralitharan run out 4

Tyagi run out 0

Extras (lb 3, w 1) 4

Total (all out; 19.4 overs) 129

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-48, 3-93, 4-101, 5-107, 6-118, 7-118, 8-118, 9-128.

Bowling: Kumble 4-0-12-2, Vinay 3-0-30-2, Kumar 3.4-0-35-1, Kallis 4-1-18-2, van der Merwe 4-0-29-1, Akhil 1-0 -2-0.

Royal Challengers:

Uthappa lbw b Morkel 6

Kallis lbw b Morkel 0

Dravid c Badrinath b Tyagi 8

Taylor c Dhoni b Oram 46

Kohli c Oram b Balaji 38

Boucher c Hayden b Muralitharan 5

van der Merwe run out 3

Akhil c Tyagi b Oram 0

Praveen not out 12

Vinay not out 6

Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 3) 8

Total (8 wickets; 19.4 overs) 132

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-12, 3-30, 4-86, 5-91, 6-104, 7-107, 8-125.

Bowling: Morkel 4-0-13-2, Tyagi 2-0-21-1, Balaji 4-0-32-1, Jakati 4-0-25-0, Muralitharan 4-0-24-1, Oram 1.4-0-12-2.

Bloemfontein, May 14
Having already secured a place in the semi-finals after their thrilling 12-run win over Deccan Chargers yesterday, Delhi Daredevils would be keen to continue the good work when they take on a desperate Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League match here tomorrow. If Delhi are on a high after becoming the first team to qualify for the last four stage with 16 points from 10 matches, Punjab have been laid low by some rather inconsistent performance that see them second from the bottom of the points table in the eight-team event.

The Yuvraj Singh-led side desperately need a victory against the marauding Daredevils if they hope to make it to the semi-finals but doing so will be one huge task given the rich vein of form the Delhi is going through right now. Kings XI Punjab need to pull out something special out of the hat and one man who can do that is skipper himself. He has had a rather sedate tournament so far and is long overdue a big score. The others too need to chip in and if their last encounter against Mumbai Indians is anything to go by, then a lot needs to be done in their batting department. To add to that Mahela Jayawardene’s hamstring injury still remains a matter of concern for the Punjab thinktank.

The Sri Lankan didn’t feature in the last match after sustaining the injury against Deccan Chargers on May 9. The bowling has improved with Brett Lee’s arrival but lacks the bite despite the presence of left-arm pacers Yusuf Abdulla and Irfan Pathan. S Sreesanth has been a big disappointment for the Kings XI with the maverick right-arm pacer scalping just one wicket from his three outings conceding huge runs.

The Kings XI bowling will be tested to the limit against a formidable Daredevils batting line-up that boasts the likes of Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik. All of them are in fine form and the best part of Delhi’s batting is that even if one fails, the rest are there to shoulder the burden. — PTI 

Chester-Le-Street, May 14
England ended the first day of the second Test at a sound 302 for two after centruries by Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara. While Bopara made 108 before being cleaned up by Baker, Cook was unbeaten on 126.

Earlier, West Indies captain Chris Gayle dismissed rival skipper Andrew Strauss to prevent England having things all their own way. They had been making serene progress on a placid pitch when Strauss, who’d been championing the cause of Test cricket on Wednesday after Gayle had stated his personal preference was for Twenty20, fell to the tourists’ captain.

Primarily an opening batsman, Gayle is also a useful off-spinner and he had Strauss caught off the glove for 22 on the sweep by wicket-keeper Ramdin to end a first-wicket stand of 69 with Cook. Both sides were unchanged from the first Test, which England won. — AFP

Scoreboard

England (1st innings)

Strauss c Ramdin b Gayle 26

Cook not out 126

Bopara b Baker 108

Anderson not out 4

Extras (b 9, lb 3, w 6, nb 20) 38

Total (2 wickets; 90 overs) 302

Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-282.

Bowling: Taylor 14-1-42-0, Edwards 14-0-58-0, Baker 19-3-60-1, Gayle 12-2-28-1, Benn 22-6-78-0, Simmons 9-0-24-0.