Today saw the return fixture in the battle of the kings. Chennai’s Super Kings won the first match in Mohali, and the Punjab Kings were out for revenge on their visit to Chennai. The match went back and fore. Yuvraj won the toss and put Chennai in to bat. Sreesanth got two early wickets, but then Dhoni and Badrinath took control. The Super Kings didn’t quite accelerate as they would have liked, but 181 was a respectable target. Shaun Marsh once again batted well, as did Irfan Pathan, but the star of the game was Lakshmipathy Balaji. He took the vital wickets of Marsh and Sarwan in one over to break up the Punjab run chase, and then a hat trick in the final over as the Chennai tail got desperate. Chennai win by 18 runs; Balaji finished with 4-0-24-5; and the Royals are still top of the table (if only on net run rate).