Deccan Chargers vs Mumbai Indians (28th March 2010)

Result: Mumbai Indians won by 41 runs

Deccan Chargers elected to field after winning the toss. MI started their innings carefully but lost their wickets in regular intervals. Sachin scored had earned 55 but it was looking they can score 150 maximum. But late fireworks by Harbhajan Singh (49 from 18 balls) helped MI to put a decent toatl of 172/7 in front of DC to chase. DC lost the wicket of Gilchrist in first over by Harbhajan Singh. Rohit Sharma top scored 45 for DC while they bundled out for 131 in 20 overs losing the match by 41 runs.

Harbhajan Singh was declared as Man of the Match for his cameo innings of 49 and 3 wickets while bowling.


Numbers that mattered, Match 25

272.22 Harbhajan’s strike-rate during his innings against DC – the second highest strike-rate in IPL 2010 in an innings of 25 or more. Only Adam Gilchrist, who made 33 runs off 12 balls against Kings XI Punjab on March 19, with a strike-rate of 275.00, is above Harbhajan.

72 The runs scored by Mumbai Indians in the last five overs – most by any side in IPL 2010. Kolkata Knight Riders had made 70 against Royal Challengers Bangalore on March 16.

53 Runs added by Ryan McLaren and Harbhajan Singh for the eight wicket. McLaren’s contribution was only 2! This was the highest eighth wicket partnership in all IPL games, beating the 48-run partnership between Irfan Pathan and Bipul Sharma for Kings XI Punjab against Deccan Chargers at Cuttack on March 19.

49 Runs scored by Harbhajan off just 18 balls – the highest by any batsman at number 9 in IPL. The previous best was Romesh Powar’s unbeaten 28 for Kings XI Punjab against Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 2008. Harbhajan’s scoring pattern in the innings - 1, 1, 6, 4, 1, 4, 6, 0, 4, 4, 1, 0, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 0 [15 scoring shots, 2 sixes, 8 fours, 5 singles].

4 Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score four fifties in IPL 2010. He was earlier level with Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Jacques Kallis with three half-centuries.

1 Tendulkar became first batsman in IPL history to score fifties in three consecutive matches.

2 Harbhajan became only the second player in IPL 2010 to perform the all-round feat of scoring 25 runs and capturing three wickets in the same match after Deccan Chargers’ Andrew Symonds. Symonds had scored 35 and taken 3-21 against Delhi Daredevils at Cuttack on March 21.

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Superkings (28th March 2010)

Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 17 runs

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first. Naman Ojha top scored with 80 in 49 balls helped RR to score 177/8 in 20 overs. Batting second Superkings scored 160 run for 6 wickets in 20 overs. Murali Vijay top scored with 42 while other batsman failed to impress in this high chase game.

Naman Ojha declared as the Man of the Match.

Numbers that mattered, Match 24

100 Albie Morkel became the first player in Twenty20 history to have played a 100 T20 games.

90.90 Rajasthan Royals’ win percentage at home. They have won 10 out of their 11 home games.

58 Both sides made 58 runs in the first 6 overs – the best performances of both teams in Powerplay in IPL 2010.

50 The wicket of S Badrinath was Shaun Tait’s 50th in Twenty20s – in only his 29th match.

39 Number of sixes hit off the bowling of Shane Warne in IPL – most conceded by any bowler. He now has the ignominy of being ahead of Kings XI Punjab’s Piyush Chawla, who has conceded 37 sixes.

37 Number of wickets taken by Shane Warne in IPL. Now only RP Singh is ahead of him with 41 wickets.

9 Rajasthan Royals have kept their record intact of not losing a match while defending a target of 150 or more. They have done this on 9 occasions now.

4 Consecutive matches won by Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2010. Chennai Super Kings meanwhile have lost four on the trot.

2 Number of times Yusuf Pathan has opened the bowling for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2010. He also did so against Kolkata Knight Riders at the same ground on March 20.

1 MS Dhoni got run-out for the first time in his IPL career.

0 Shane Warne, who was on the verge of being declared timed out, got run-out without facing a ball. He became third batsman in IPL 2010 to suffer this fate after fellow team-mate Swapnil Asnodkar and Kolkata’s Angelo Mathews. Interestingly, this was the second such instance for Warne in IPL. He had also got out in similar fashion last year against Mumbai Indians.

King XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders (27th March 2010)

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 39 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 183/5 in 20 overs, their height total in IPL. Ganguly scored and late stike of 75 by Manoj Tiwary at the end of the innings help them put a fighting total. Chasing the target KXIP lost Bopara early. Yuvraj tried to play some strokes but failed to Agarkar who also took the wicket of Bisla. After Sangakara stumped out, Irfan played some good strokes but could prevent their team from defeat.

Numbers that mattered, Match 23

183 Kolkata posted their highest total in IPL 2010.

37 Number of sixes conceded by Piyush Chawla – most for any bowler in IPL history. He was earlier at level with Shane Warne.

19 Runs scored in the first over of Kolkata innings as Chris Gayle took on Brett Lee. This is the most expensive opening over in IPL 2010. Rajasthan Royals had made 14 against Delhi Daredevils on March 15.

16.50 Yuvraj’s batting average in 6 matches in IPL 2010. In 2008 and 2009 he averaged 23.00 and 28.33 respectively.

16 Innings after which Sourav Ganguly scored a fifty in IPL. Interestingly his last fifty had also come against the same opponents in 2008 when he made an unbeaten 86 at Kolkata.

5 Kings XI Punjab became the first side to lose 5 matches in IPL 2010.

2 Manoj Tiwary became the fifth player to win two (or more) Man-of-the-match awards in IPL  2010 after Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar (3 each), Andrew Symonds and Yusuf Pathan (2 each).