McLaren chips in with bat and ball

Ryan McLaren has managed to hold on to his spot in the Mumbai XI in most matches this season despite the presence of many big-name foreign players, several of whom are allrounders. At the Chinnaswamy, he showed why the Mumbai thinktank rate him so highly, with a composed 40 at the top of the order and then picked up the big wicket of Jacques Kallis in an economical spell.

The table-toppers have had trouble with their opening combination over the past couple of weeks, and McLaren was the fourth new partner for Sachin Tendulkar in four matches. McLaren made slow progress initially, but capitalized on a couple of dropped chances to increasing his scoring rate. He slammed Anil Kumble straight down the ground for four, and then glanced him to fine leg for four more. By the time he was dismissed, McLaren had accumulated 40 from 42 deliveries.

He wasn't done yet; with the ball he started with a tidy over, giving away only seven runs. He followed that up by getting rid of the consistent Kallis, with a full delivery that took an inside-edge and crashed into the stumps. He finished with figures of 4-0-21-1.