Valthaty produced a whirlwind 120 not out off 63 balls as the home side scored 193-4 off 19.1 overs in reply to Chennai’s 188-4.

The 27-year-old Valthaty, who has never played first-class cricket, smashed two sixes and 19 fours in Adam Gilchrist-led Punjab’s first win.

Chennai, which had beaten Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs in the opening match, suffered its first loss despite registering the highest score of the tournament.

Valthaty, promoted as opener, propelled the score with lusty hitting early on and reached 30 off 17 deliveries, taking his team to 50 off just 5.1 overs.

He domination can be gauged from the fact that the next highest scorer for his team was Dinesh Karthik with 21 not out.

Valthaty recorded the first century of this IPL, overshadowing some superb performances including that of World Cup-winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni struck a quickfire 43 off only 20 deliveries for Chennai, bludgeoning 22 off an over from Praveen Kumar, during which he hit two successive sixes over the square-leg fence.

Dhoni’s fireworks capped a remarkable recovery from a woeful start.

Chennai lost wickets off the first two deliveries of the match. Kumar trapped Anirudha Srikkanth lbw with a lovely inswinger and had left-hander Suresh Raina caught at short square leg with a delivery that moved the other way.

But opener Murali Vijay (74) and dependable middle-order batsman Subramaniam Badrinath (66 not out) scripted a superb recovery.

Vijay completed his 50 off just 34 balls with a six to debutant left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt. He was out stumped by Gilchrist off legspinner Piyush Chawla after hitting four sixes and six fours off 43 deliveries.

Vijay added 124 runs for the third wicket with Badrinath, who faced 56 deliveries and had eight hits to the fence.

The pair featured in a 124-run stand for the third wicket.
 
Tendulkar named Wisden Cricketer of Year

Meantime, Sachin Tendulkar has been named Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year for 2010, crowning a golden month for “the little master” which also saw him play a starring role in India’s World Cup triumph.

Tendulkar’s honor from the cricketing bible means India has won the accolade three years running following the back-to-back awards for Virender Sehwag in each of the previous two years.

It follows another prolific run-scoring year for the 37-year-old, who rattled off more than 1,500 Test runs including seven Test hundreds, including a record 50th overall, in 2010.

Tendulkar is also on the brink of hitting 100 international centuries, currently on 99. He also became the first player to hit a double-century in a one-day international.

“Wisden acknowledges his greatness by naming him as the Leading Cricketer in the World for 2010,” Tendulkar’s citation in Wisden read.

Tendulkar’s batting also saw him earn a spot in Wisden’s 2010 Test XI, along with Sehwag and Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal.

Other players to feature in the world XI were England off-spinner Graeme Swann and fast bowler James Anderson.

However for the first time, no Australian has been included in the all-star line-up.