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India, say hello to the Mongoose, the shorter, thicker bat with the longer handle. You already knew Matthew Hayden, but might have forgotten him momentarily after his ordinary start this year. On Friday, the two combined in a deadly manner. Hayden smacked 93 off 43 balls to almost singlehandedly chase down Delhi Daredevils’ imposing target. Delhi’s innings featured a similarly dominant effort. If Hayden scored 93 of the 142 while at crease, Virender Sehwag pummelled 74 out of 103.

Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, has suggested scrapping the Champions Trophy and creating a two-month window for the IPL in order to revive spectator interest in the game.

“Playing the World Twenty20 every other year is too much,” Hayden wrote in his column in the Independent. “And why have the Champions Trophy when you’ve already got a 50-over World Cup?”

The Champions Trophy was postponed to September 2009 and shifted to South Africa after teams expressed security concerns about playing in Pakistan last year. The ICC has been trying to rebrand the tournament as a short two-week elite tournament played at just two venues – Wanderers and Johannesburg.

Matthew Hayden has warned Kevin Pietersen that his comeback from an Achilles injury could be the toughest battle of his career, after it was confirmed the England batsman was admitted to a central London hospital for treatment on an infection in the stitching of his surgically-repaired right ankle.

Pietersen, who underwent the operation two-and-a-half weeks ago after England’s victory in the second Test at Lord’s, is expected to be discharged on Wednesday after spending two nights in hospital. He has been placed on a course of antibiotics and will be reassessed later in the week before resuming his rehabilitation programme, but Hayden, who also sustained a high-profile Achilles problem during the first season of IPL, said that it was a problem that was unlikely to go away.

Kevin Pietersen’s participation in the IPL will come under further scrutiny after it emerged his Achilles injury deteriorated while on duty with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. According to Evan Speechly, Bangalore’s assistant coach and physiotherapist, Pietersen aggravated his right Achilles while jogging along Durban’s beachfront and returned to England for the home series against West Indies experiencing increased discomfort.

Pietersen reported for IPL duty with a pre-existing Achilles problem, sustained during England’s ill-fated tour of the Caribbean. The ECB, who dispatched senior medical officers Simon Timson and Nick Pierce to South Africa to monitor their IPL-contracted players, outlined a revised training plan for Pietersen, the Bangalore captain, which the franchise’s medical staff strictly enforced.

Darren Gough believes England can use the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20 to build vital momentum ahead of Australia’s arrival later this summer, and that they will go into the Ashes as favourites after the team gelled impressively during the recent Test series victory over West Indies.

Tests and Twenty20s may be chalk and cheese but Gough knows from personal experience just how significant a factor momentum can be, after his starring role in England’s crushing 100-run victory in the first Twenty20 between England and Australia at the Rose Bowl in 2005.

Phil Jaques will continue to fight to regain his national spot despite suffering a setback in his recovery from a severe back problem when he was dropped from Australia’s contract list on Thursday. Jaques has opened in 11 Tests for the team and scored 108 in his last match 11 months ago, but he was cut from the XI in India and returned home for surgery.

His comeback began towards the end of the season and did not go well, with him requiring a second operation on his back and Phillip Hughes capturing the vacancy created by Matthew Hayden’s retirement. “It is obviously very disappointing,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Matthew Hayden and Shane Warne. Sixty-nine Tests together, the last 12 of them wins, but today they would decide who’d win this IPL game and go to the top of the table. There could be only one winner, and on the night it was Hayden. Chasing 141 Chennai Super Kings were in for a tough one, with the pitch turning square and staying slow and Warne looking like pulling off something special. Hayden, though, attacked clinically, played like a workman in between those assaults, and ensured Chennai beat Rajasthan for the second time in this IPL. He had with him S Badrinath, who went from being a supporting act to a lead player towards the end.

Kings XI Punjab made Chennai Super Kings really sweat in a spirited chase towards a Duckworth-Lewis revised target of 187, but when it mattered most MS Dhoni’s tactical nous won it for Chennai. Simon Katich had set the tone for Punjab’s bravado, and Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene batted superbly in the face of adversity, adding 60 in just 4.3 overs under lights. Then, with 43 left to defend off 24 balls, Dhoni took pace off the ball by calling on Suresh Raina’s part-time offspin. Only 10 runs came off his two overs, which provided to be the final twist of the match.

A tenacious display from Deccan Chargers’ bowlers followed by a murderous assault from their opening batsmen secured their fourth consecutive win of the tournament and firmly established the Hyderabad side as the team to beat this season.

Pragyan Ojha once again bowled impressively – picking up two wickets in one crucial over, including that of the dangerous-looking Matthew Hayden – to restrict Chennai to merely 165 when they looked set for much more at one stage. The competitive target, however, was diminished by a withering assault from Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs. They blitzed 60 runs off the first four overs and gave their team enough cushion against a few setbacks on their way to victory.

Each of Chennai Super Kings’ big-name foreign players did their bit to get the campaign back on track after the opening-day reverse against Mumbai Indians. Matthew Hayden rolled back the years to crack a quick half-century, Muttiah Muralitharan put another nail in the coffin of the spinners-have-no-place-in-Twenty20 theory, Andrew Flintoff sparkled with bat and ball, and Albie Morkel provided a crucial early breakthrough to sink Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Bangalore may have revamped their side this year, but turned in a performance reminiscent of their dire showings last season. The batting has yet to fire in two games, and the bowling was clueless against the initial onslaught from Chennai’s openers.