Mathew Hayden’s blazing innings of 93 helped Chennai win by five wickets. Raina was unbeaten on 49.

India, say hello to the Mongoose, the shorter, thicker bat with the longer handle. Matthew Hayden, you already know, but might have forgotten momentarily after his ordinary start to the tournament. On Friday, the two combined in deadly manner. Hayden smacked 93 off 43 to almost single-handedly chase down Delhi Daredevils’ 185. Delhi’s innings featured a similarly dominant effort. If Hayden scored 93 of the 142 while at crease, Virender Sehwag pummelled 74 out of 103.

That Hayden’s effort went on for longer meant Chennai Super Kings prevailed in the battle of superb fielding. It was three good catches from Chennai’s new captain, Suresh Raina, and a spectacular effort at the boundary from Justin Kemp, a near replica of his ICL catch, that kept Delhi under 200. Tillakaratne Dilshan took a blinder charging in from long-on to deny Hayden a century, and Chennai a jitter-less finish.

Delhi, and their new captain Dinesh Karthik, will wonder if they brought Dirk Nannes back too late - in the 13th over , and will also ask themselves why the bouncer was not tried against the Mongoose. Not as if Hayden necessarily needed the new bat to cause wreckage.

By the time he called out for the Mongoose, Hayden had smashed three boundaries in eight balls already, which must have given him the confidence to call for the newest beast in town. Not as if Hayden necessarily needed the new bat to hit the six fours and seven sixes that followed in the next 35 deliveries he faced.

It was hitting so clean that it perhaps didn’t need the rumoured 20% extra power on most of the occasions. Only the second of three sixes in Dilshan’s over - the eighth of the innings - did he mis-hit, but the ball managed to sail over wide long-on. That six also brought up his fifty, off 24 balls, and by the end of the over, he had reached 61, and Chennai 85.

More down-the-ground carnage followed in the next four overs, and Hayden had reached 87 off 37 and Chennai needed just 57 off 48 when Nannes was called back. A tight over later, Hayden hit Amit Mishra powerfully down the ground, and Dilshan ran in and caught it inches off the ground. Would it have carried had it been hit with a normal bat?

Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp failed to contribute much, and the onus fell on Raina after Chennai lost three wickets for 27 runs. However, the stand-in captain kept producing the goods, picking up boundaries - six of them - whenever the equation started to look tricky, and his unbeaten 49 carried Chennai home with five balls to spare.

With Sehwag going, though, Raina’s team was looking at a much bigger target. His 38-ball 74 came as easy as his strolled singles, but Chennai managed to create and latch on to more catching opportunities to slow down Delhi just about enough in the last eight overs.

Sehwag’s innings took about as much time as it took David Warner and Dilshan to struggle and get out, managing 21 off 32 between them. Sehwag was in that scoring zone right from the first ball he faced, which he flicked nicely to midwicket. The middle of the bat was found, the gaps started coming from second ball on, which went soaring over Albie Morkel’s head. In the first eight overs, he displayed almost the whole array of effective Twenty20 shots: hits down the ground, through extra cover, over wide long-on and midwicket, and the square-cut.

The first over he faced from Muttiah Muralitharan was the highlight. He came down the track first ball, Murali bowled flat, he checked his shot. The second ball he anticipated flatness, and stayed back and opened the face and beat short third man. Later in the over came the standout shot, when he waited even more and took the ball from in front of stumps, and guided it to the left of short third this time. By the end of that over, eighth of the innings, Sehwag had scored 61 off 28, out of the team total of 79.

Just in time, Kemp produced the moment of inspiration, jumping at the right time and taking a left-handed catch behind his body at the long-off boundary. Immediately before and after that, Raina produced two good catches to get rid of Dilshan and AB de Villiers.

With 7.3 overs still to go, there was time enough for either side to win or lose. Although balance was retained, the 78 that Karthik, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia added proved to be inadequate when put up against Hayden and Mongoose.