Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Deccan Chargers Wrecks Kochi Tuskers in a pace friendly wicket

Deccan Chargers 129 for 7 ( Sanga 65, Vinay 3-27 ) beat Kochi Tuskers 74 ( Ishant 5-12, Steyn 3-16 ) by 55 runs. (Full Scorecard is their at the end of the article)

If you needed a punctuation mark to describe this game, you'd choose a big, bold exclamation mark and colour it a deep crimson red. Kochi Tuskers Kerala's scorecard was stunningly woeful at the end of four sensational overs: 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0 were the scores of the batsmen sucker-punched by Ishant Sharma (Photo on Left), who harassed them with seam and bounce. And Kochi never recovered from that soul-crushing spell.

His hair bobbed up and down in characteristic fashion as Ishant ran in, fingers behind the seam and wrists snapping at the release, and the length was nearly always full. The first has been an ever-present theme with him in good and bad times, the second image hasn't always been consistently repeated, and the third was a pleasant surprise.


Ishant entered the scene after Dale Steyn took out Brendon McCullum in the first over with a delivery that jagged away to take the outside edge. It was the beginning of Kochi's nightmare as Ishant stunned them with a triple strike. Parthiv Patel stabbed at a delivery that bounced and seamed away from him to the keeper, Raiphi Gomez (what was he doing at No. 4?) was taken out for a first-ball duck by a sharp incutter, and Brad Hodge combusted off the fifth delivery. He played a loose and ambitious off drive, wafting outside the line of the full delivery that cut in to rearrange the furniture.


Kochi were 2 for 4 then and all their hopes rested on their opener and captain Mahela Jayawardene, who was a forlorn figure in the middle, watching the destruction unfold in front of him. Ishant wasn't done yet; he reserved his best for Jayawardene. After trapping Kedar Jadhav in front with a sharp incutter in the fourth over, he produced a brute of a delivery to knock out Jayawardene, and Kochi, in the same over. It screamed up from back of a good length, held its line and kissed the edge of the defensive prod en route to the delighted Kumar Sangakkara. Jayawardene gave an inquisitive, and accusing, look at the pitch before he turned and departed the crime scene.

Ishant's figures read an incredible 5 for 6 and Kochi were 11 for 6 from four overs, and though there were a couple of face-saving contributions from Ravindra Jadeja and Thisara Perera, they were rapidly heading along a cul-de-sac.

In retrospect, the middle-over massacre led by Sangakkara - Deccan recovered from the depths of 37 for 3 after 10 overs to reach 105 for 3 in 16 - lulled one into a false perception about the nature of the track. In hindsight, Kochi will be ruing a no-ball from Sreesanth that allowed Sangakkara to break free. Sangakkara was on 5 when Sreesanth produced a jaffa - it bent back in from the off stump line to knock out the middle stump - but the third umpire confirmed the on-field umpire's suspicion that it was a no-ball.

It was the 11th over, bowled by Perera, that changed the landscape. Both Sangakkara and Cameron White, who was on 6 from 17 balls, pulled two short deliveries to the boundary to take 11 runs in that over. It wasn't your massive "big over" that the IPL throws up on a daily basis but it was the spark that ignited Deccan, and Sangakkara in particular. In the 12th over, he dragged Vinay Kumar for two leg-side boundaries and threw in the conventional and the upper cut to collect two more fours in the 14th over, off Perera. He continued to slash and heave and even unfurled a paddle-swept boundary off Sreesanth but the next over over from Vinay brought Kochi back.

Vinay had White holing out to deep midwicket off the fifth delivery and induced Sangakkara to edge a slower one off the next. The lower order couldn't produce anything substantial and the question lingered at the end of their innings: Was 129 going to be enough? Ishant answered it in some style.



Deccan Chargers won by 55 runs
Deccan Chargers innings (20 overs maximum)RB4s6sSR
View dismissalS Sohallbw b Singh140025.00
View dismissalS Dhawanc Gomez b Singh490044.44
View dismissalB Chiplic Sreesanth b Vinay Kumar4100040.00
View dismissalKC Sangakkara*†c †Patel b Vinay Kumar6547100138.29
View dismissalCL Whitec Jayawardene b Vinay Kumar31342191.17
View dismissalDT Christianb Perera9110081.81
DB Ravi Tejanot out8510160.00
View dismissalA Mishrarun out (†Patel/Perera)01000.00
MS Gonynot out01000.00
Extras(b 1, lb 1, w 3, nb 2)7
Total(7 wickets; 20 overs)129(6.45 runs per over)
Did not bat DW SteynI Sharma
Fall of wickets1-3 (Sohal, 0.6 ov)2-6 (Dhawan, 2.2 ov)3-20 (Chipli, 5.2 ov)4-110 (White, 16.5 ov),5-110 (Sangakkara, 16.6 ov)6-127 (Christian, 19.3 ov)7-127 (Mishra, 19.4 ov)
BowlingOMRWEcon
View wicketsRP Singh402125.25(2w)
S Sreesanth412205.50(2nb, 1w)
View wicketsR Vinay Kumar402536.25
View wicketNLTC Perera403017.50
RV Gomez10404.00
RA Jadeja302508.33
Kochi Tuskers Kerala innings (target: 130 runs from 20 overs)RB4s6sSR
View dismissalBB McCullumc †Sangakkara b Steyn04000.00
View dismissalDPMD Jayawardene*c †Sangakkara b Sharma481050.00
View dismissalPA Patelc †Sangakkara b Sharma03000.00
View dismissalRV Gomezb Sharma01000.00
View dismissalBJ Hodgeb Sharma02000.00
View dismissalKM Jadhavlbw b Sharma02000.00
View dismissalRA Jadejac Christian b Mishra23352065.71
View dismissalNLTC Pererac White b Gony22234095.65
View dismissalR Vinay Kumarb Steyn18192094.73
S Sreesanthnot out01000.00
View dismissalRP Singhb Steyn01000.00
Extras(lb 3, w 4)7
Total(all out; 16.3 overs)74(4.48 runs per over)
Fall of wickets1-0 (McCullum, 0.4 ov)2-1 (Patel, 1.2 ov)3-1 (Gomez, 1.3 ov)4-2 (Hodge, 1.5 ov)5-6 (Jadhav, 3.1 ov),6-11 (Jayawardene, 3.6 ov)7-47 (Perera, 10.4 ov)8-73 (Jadeja, 15.4 ov)9-74 (Vinay Kumar, 16.2 ov),10-74 (Singh, 16.3 ov)

BowlingOMRWEcon
View wicketsDW Steyn3.311634.57(2w)
View wicketsI Sharma301254.00(1w)
DT Christian301204.00(1w)
View wicketMS Gony301916.33
View wicketA Mishra401213.00

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