Matthew Hayden with his award on Saturday

Chennai: For Shah Rukh Khan and his team it’s kabhi khushi, kabhi gham.

After two wins, Kolkata Knight Riders crashed to their first defeat in the DLF Indian Premier League. The target of 148 proved too little for a marauding Matthew Hayden as he belted an unbeaten 70 off 49 balls for Chennai Super Kings to record their third straight win.

The Twenty20 tie never matched the hype surrounding it as Sourav Ganguly’s men had very little going for them for the better part of the match. Slowly but steadily, the strains of korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re evaporated into thin air.

Shivamani had got the crowd on their feet from the start. The crowd went delirious with M.A. Chidambaram Stadium’s resident DJ belting away on the PA system, “we will we will rock you… we are the champions”.

If Shah Rukh Khan was sorely missed by the Knight Riders, their mascot Hoogh-Lee made its presence felt through occasional rounds of the stadium’s periphery. Then as Hayden stepped on the gas pedal and their chances got murkier and murkier, very few visiting supporters were to be seen.

Co-owner Juhi Mehta was not to be missed, though. Sitting in the dressing room balcony with husband Jai, she was at hand to keep the players in the right spirit.

The Chennai Super Kings’ bowling, that was supposed to be their weakest link, turned out to be their trump card. Jacob Oram (3/32) was the most successful while Manpreet Singh Ghoni (2/40) and Palani Amaranth (2/29) were not too far behind.

But it was Muttiah Muralidharan’s four-over spell, which cost him a mere 12 runs that put the skids on the visitors. The wily off-spinner showed why he is regarded as the best in business. As is important in this form of the game, he stuck to the basics.

The full house was stunned into silence as Brendon McCullum launched into an early offensive (24 off 12 balls) raising memories of his Bangalore blitzkrieg. The momentum turned as Jacob Oram got him to drive early and Ricky Ponting followed with a first ball duck for the second consecutive time.

Wriddhiman Saha took the baton from McCullum and together with Sourav tried to repair the damage with a 29 run partnership. His streaky 27 from 16 balls included a scoop over fine leg that fetched him a four and a six.

The offensive was short lived as another flurry of wickets left Knight Riders gasping at 70 for five in the tenth over. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was in no mood to surrender, though.

The Bengal captain made a gritty 42 off 33 balls before being run out in an unfortunate manner in the penultimate ball of the innings. Sadly he ran out of partners.

All depended on how Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda responded to the challenge. They had given their side the early breakthroughs previously that had provided the platform to their victories. They floundered on Saturday though, striving for extra pace as Hayden got into the act.

There was no stopping the burly Australian as anything and everything was despatched to the boundary with minimum effort. A straight six off Ishant will remain in the memory for long. There was very little Sourav could do under the circumstances.

Parthiv Patel’s dismissal did provide a breakthrough but Mahendra Singh Dhoni ensured no further damage. An unbeaten 43 off 27 balls and an unbroken stand of 86 for the second wicket took the sails out of Knight Riders’ ship. To cap it off on a perfect note, Dhoni hoisted Kartik into the stands to put Chennai Super Kings into the top of the points table.