McCullum stuns Chennai

Brendon McCullum made a severe dent into the below-par D/L-adjusted target, and handy contributions from Parthiv Patel and Brad Hodge then gave Kochi Tuskers their second win in a row. It was the impact of the clean hitting from McCullum that shook Chennai up, and smartly Parthiv and Hodge took Kochi home. It was in compete contrast to how almost every Chennai batsman bar M Vijay struggled to find timing on a pitch that seemed to have retained some moisture. The Kochi bowlers used the track well, getting the ball to grip, but it was the ground fielding that stifled Chennai despite the fact the inside edges regularly found the boundary and mis-hits hardly ever reached the deep fielders.

McCullum then made batting looked ridiculously easy. Statements don't come more emphatic than his spinner-like treatment of Albie Morkel at the start of the chase. He charged straight at Morkel in the first over and deposited him into the sight screen. In Morkel's second, he went over cow corner. Disdain was getting defined. Doug Bollinger got a sample too when he as much as pitched short of a length.

Mahela Jayawardene departed after hitting R Ashwin for a four and a six, but nothing was keeping McCullum from hitting balls towards the sight screen, as Shadab Jakati realised. In the ninth over, Tim Southee also made the mistake of following the McCullum pads, and was hit for two boundaries as Kochi attained a rate of nine an over.

In between, Parthiv played a lovely cover-drive for four, but also got one inside edge to run down for four to give Chennai taste of their own medicine. McCullum wanted to finish things off fast, but miscued one off R Ashwin to leave the others 46 to get off 39, which they got without major incident.