Balaji's home ground return to "limelight cricket" was sensational when he took 5 wickets against Punjab including a hat-trick. This is the 14th in T20 and a thoroughly deserving man got it. He was one of my favorite bowlers back in 2004 when he played a marvelous series against Pakistan. He almost single handedly won India the series.Cricinfo says:
Lakshmipathy Balaji has gone through an entire career in five years - burst onto the scene, won a series, hailed as the next big thing, been injured, recovered, been dropped, injured again, disappeared from public memory - but was yet to play a big match on his home ground. So it was only fitting the famous smile that won over Pakistan in 2004 could manage a grand return in his beloved Chennai.Balaji's spell of 4 overs 24 runs and 5 wickets was the differentiator in a yet again close match. Chennai's team seems to be coming back on track. While they lost Hayden and Hussey in batting department, they have got Balaji and Morkel as their strike bowlers. This means that Joginder sharma may not get a chance now to play in IPL.
