The IPL's new 'tactical timeout' is hampering the momentum of a team in a Twenty20 match, Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar has said. The seven-and-a-half-minute break in the middle of an innings has also been criticised by Mumbai offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who told NDTV he did not like it because it "breaks the rhythm".

"Yes, we have done well in our last match but I think the strategy breaks are hampering the momentum of a team," Tendulkar said. "The seven and a half minute breaks are a bit too long."

Mumbai began their IPL campaign by beating Chennai Super Kings by 19 runs in Cape Town on Saturday and Chennai's head of cricket operations, VB Chandrasekhar, was also not pleased by the scheduled break.

"The seven and a half minute break after 10 overs is quite a distraction and comes in the way of valuable momentum, but that is something all teams will have to live with this year," Chandrasekhar wrote in his blog on the team's website. "Further, we had an unscheduled break of seven to eight minutes with a magnificent black canine holding centre stage amid hilarious scenes never before witnessed."

Chandrasekhar, a former India batsman and ex-national selector, is not the only credible face in the IPL to have voiced concerns about the timeout that was introduced to show more commericials on Indian television. Tom Moody, the Kings XI Punjab coach, admitted on Sunday that the timeout had affected his team's momentum, leading to a loss against Delhi Daredevils.

"We had the momentum and we had seven and a half minutes to lose it," Moody said. "It was the perfect time for Daniel Vettori to come on and secure the momentum back in favour of Delhi. But there are going to be days in this tournament when it works in our favour too."

Meanwhile, Chandrasekhar wrote Morkel's omission was a key reason for Chennai's 19-run loss to Mumbai. "A last minute change to the side was to prove costly for us as Albie landed here sans his gear. The airline had lost it in transit from Johannesburg where he had played the last ODI game against the touring Aussies," he wrote. "Albie was very disappointed and stressed at the sad turn of events. We missed him for his all-round skills, although Thushara did bowl well in his opening spell."

The other disappointments for Chennai was the catch dropped by Mathew Hayden at slip to let off Sachin Tendulkar off Andrew Flintoff and the three sixes hit by Abhishek Nayar in another Flintoff over. "Tendulkar was dropped early and later, Abhishek Nayar got stuck into Freddie," Chandrasekhar wrote. "A little more planning was necessary for local players and that is an area to be addressed with greater care. Nayar's cameo gave them a competitive score. These factors, combined with a bad start to our chase when we lost a couple of early wickets, put us quickly in a catch up mode especially as Haydos [Hayden] couldn't dictate terms to Bhajji."

Chennai Super Kings' big-name foreign players stepped up 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, and Andrew Flintoff sparkled with bat and ball 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.

After a weekend when the bowlers mostly held sway, the Chennai openers staged a display of vintage Twenty20 batting to provide just the start MS Dhoni would have wanted after winning the toss. Hayden was at his bullying best, and the hallmarks of his batting were on view: the walk-down-the-track to club the quicks, the muscular sweeps against the spinners. There was plenty of finesse among the fireworks as well, gentle glides to third man, and some caressed drives through cover.

Jacques Kallis, surprisingly picked ahead of Jesse Ryder, bore the brunt of Hayden's hitting. His first three deliveries disappeared for boundaries, and Hayden rounded off the over with a blast over long-off for six, 20 runs in that fifth over had Chennai flying at 56 for 0.

Pietersen rang in the changes but they were to no avail. Vinay Kumar was taken for two fours in the next over, and part-timer Virat Kohli gifted a couple of fours in the seventh which had Hayden racing to his half-century.

Parthiv was not quite as fluent, always keen to throw his bat and loft towards midwicket. There were plenty of mishits while he attempted that stroke, but there was one glorious pull off Dale Steyn which sailed over the square-leg boundary. By the time the tactical time-out came around, Chennai had sprinted to 106 for 0.

Kevin Pietersen may have been paid the big bucks for his flamboyant batting and captaincy, but it was with his amiable offspinners that he made an impact. His first ball bowled Parthiv, who made a meal of a slog-sweep, and Hayden was run out by a direct hit from Rahul Dravid at point off the next delivery. Only eight runs came off the next three overs.

Suresh Raina and Dhoni played some sumptuous strokes, but there too many singles and dot balls to keep the run-rate at the stratospheric levels the openers had maintained. It was left to Flintoff to make a 13-ball 22, including a flat six over square-leg off Steyn, to push Chennai along.

The boundaries may have been brought in at St George's Park, but 180 was always going to be a tall order for Bangalore. Their experiment to open with Praveen Kumar failed when he was bowled in the first over.

Kallis started to make amends for his lacklustre bowling with some eye-catching strokes steering Bangalore to 40 for 1 after five overs. However, he perished when, after a Pietersen-esque jumps across the stumps, he missed a full ball from Morkel to be trapped lbw.The miserly Flintoff then struck, getting Ross Taylor when a wild swipe only went as far as the bowler.

Worse was to follow. Murali, bowling from round the wicket, trapped Pietersen for a duck with a straighter one, and the unconvincing Robin Uthappa was stumped after being drawn forward by a flighted delivery which dipped and turned. Bangalore had slid to 51 for 5, and the chase was shipwrecked.

With the asking-rate spiralling upwards, Bangalore set about throwing the bat around, and the inevitable indiscreet strokes had them bowled out for 87.