Ashwin brings Chennai back on track

On a day that Ravi Shatri wrote in the Times of India that R Ashwin is losing some of his mystery, Ashwin showed Shastri had perhaps written too early. On a turning pitch, with pressure created in a tense chase, Aswhin can still work some magic. And magic he created to help Chennai Super Kings defend a sub-par 142 and end a three-match losing streak.

Pune Warriors had got off to a decent start when MS Dhoni brought Ashwin on. It was still a new ball, and Ashwin ripped his first delivery across Jesse Ryder. Ryder came back to hit him for a lovely straight six, onto wet floor behind the sightscreen. Ashwin changed his angle, went round the stumps, took the wet ball, and bowled a match-turning arm ball. So eceptive was it, Ryder didn't even get an inside edge on it. It went unhindered and took the middle stump out of the ground.

Pune, though, still had a lot of firepower in their ranks. Robin Uthappa is one such aggressive batsman who can swing low chases in three overs' time. And Uthappa is no foreign batsman coming to face Ashwin for the first time. Yet he fell to the carrom ball. Bowled around his legs by an offspinner bowling over the stumps. Go figure that. It was a paddle sweep that Uthappa tried off a very full delivery, but it still pitched around leg and turned away, to the horror of Uthappa. That was part of a wicket-maiden inside the field restrictions.

The chase was reeling now, and while Michael Hussey might have been the Man of the Match, Ashwin's figures of 4-1-19-2 played no small part.