Hayden's troubles, and sloppy Mumbai

Old Father Time: By any standards, it was a terrible innings from Matthew Hayden. There was one stroke, a shuffle down the track to Harbhajan followed by a loft over wide long-on that reminded those watching of the glory years, but otherwise his 17 from 31 balls was akin to seeing a boxer trying to throw punches he once had. When he skied one straight up in the air, even his team-mates must have heaved a sigh of relief. He was a solid slip fielder for Australia, but today he floundered there as well, failing to take a leading edge of Abhishek Nayar at first slip. It might be the last we see of him on a cricket field.

Raina doubts himself: Not sure if Suresh Raina had a hunch. When Kieron Pollard charged in to bowl the first ball to Raina, the batsman squatted and ducked as though expecting a short delivery. Pollard, though, failed to deliver the ball and was surprised to see Raina react in such a dramatic fashion. Perhaps, Raina was fighting his own ghosts.

Dumb and dumber: Finding it hard to gain the upper hand against some disciplined bowling Raina went for the slog against Zaheer Khan and the leading edge looped towards short third man. It was an easy catch for either of the two fielders - Abhishek Nayar moving back from point and the steadily advancing Dilhara Fernando from deep third man. But both played "After you, after you" and watched the ball drop between them. Zaheer, shocked, spat out a mouthful of curses towards the duo.

Raina was on 13 when the Nayar-Fernando fiasco happened. But on 28 a similar miscue went high in Zaheer's direction. He swayed and stumbled under it, managed to stretch and get both hands to it and then saw the ball slip out. Raina carved the next ball over cover for six, and finished with an unbeaten 57.

Look ma, one hand: MS Dhoni has hit some awesome sixes in his career, and this one was close to his best. Full from Pollard, and Dhoni heaved so hard that the bottom hand came off the bat handle. No matter. The ball went nearly 100m over midwicket.

Mahi gets Pollard: Yes, the card will reveal Hayden caught him off Albie Morkel. But the dismissal was plotted by Dhoni. As Pollard took 22 runs off Doug Bollinger in the 18th over and threatened Chennai, Dhoni moved Hayden from mid-on to an unorthodox straight mid-off, anticipating that Pollard would go for the straight boundary. So when Morkel bowled a fuller length in the channel, Pollard scooped a straight and low catch to Hayden, who finally had his first smile of the evening.