Kings XI Punjab hand Deccan Chargers another defeat

24th May 2008

In what was more of a pride-salvaging exercise, Deccan Chargers' captain Adam Gilchrist called wrong at the toss and his Kings XI counterpart put them in first.

Both teams made a bagful of changes coming into this tie - albeit for various reasons. Kings XI, who've now made it to the last four, brought back a fit-again Kumar Sangakkara, Ramesh Powar and Gagandeep Singh, while Uday Kaul, Irfan Pathan and James Hopes got a much-deserved break. The Deccan Chargers, placed bottom of the pile, saw this as yet another chance to get their combination right. Herschelle Gibbs was back in the fold, while Afridi was left to warm the benches.

Both the Deccan Chargers' openers, Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs, pounced on anything loose, and got their team off to a good start. The first five overs saw the Chargers collect seven boundaries, and the scoreboard read 39 for no loss. With still one over to go before the field restrictions would elapse, Kings XI captain Yuvraj Singh took the gamble of introducing his off spinner Ramesh Powar. Throwing up the ball above the batsman's eye line, Powar only conceded three runs in his first over - one of them courtesy a wide down the leg side. Leg spinner Piyush Chawla followed next over, and he beat both Gilchrist and Gibbs in the over, mixing up his googlies well with the conventional leg breaks.

The Chargers', who scored at close to eight runs every over when the seamers were in operation, suddenly seemed to lose momentum. In a bid to break the shackles, Gibbs gave Powar the charge in his next over and dispatched him over the mid wicket fence - that shot brought up the fifty partnership between the two openers. He continued his big-hitting antics in the next couple of overs and at the half way stage, the Chargers' were nicely placed at 70 for no loss, and were looking set to post a total in excess of 150.

After a slow yet steady start, Herschelle Gibbs threw it all away, when he played an absolute rash stroke - he tried to slog across the line, but missed the ball completely - and gave Gagandeep Singh his third wicket in the tournament. The 79-run opening start was broken, and the Deccan Chargers' leading run scorer Rohit Sharma walked out to bat.

Seeing his specialist spinners slow down the flow of runs, Yuvraj Singh introduced himself into the attack in the fourteenth over. But that move backfired. Gilchrist hit him for two sixes and Yuvraj's first over would see the addition of 18 runs to the Chargers' score. In the very next over, Powar's final over, Gilchrist was let off after getting to his fifty when an intended late cut was put down by Kumar Sangakkara behind the stumps. Gilchrist didn't make much of that opportunity, when he chopped one onto his stumps off the very next delivery.

Into the last quarter of the innings, Gagandeep Singh's gentle medium pace came in for severe punishment at the hands of Rohit Sharma who hit him for two massive sixes in an over that cost the Kings XI 21 runs. From a run-a-ball 13, Sharma had suddenly raced to 50 off 26 balls, contributing 37 in the 38 run third-wicket partnership with Venugopal Rao. Trying to improvise soon after he got to fifty, Rohit Sharma lost his middle stump.

Chamara Silva earned a reprieve off the very first ball he faced; he flicked a leg stump delivery from VRV Singh through midwicket, but Gagandeep Singh, fielding at the edge of the circle, seemed to lose the ball in the background, and made a hash of what should have been a straightforward catch.

Sreesanth made it two chances in three balls when he didn't cling on to a return catch offered by Venugopal Rao, but came back strongly to pick up Rao's wicket with his penultimate delivery.

VRV Singh's low full toss, which was dispatched into the stands behind the midwicket fence, was the highlight of the last over, as the Chargers reached 175 for four at the end of their allotted twenty overs.

The Kings XI run chase started with an all-left order: Kumar Sangakkara walked out to bat with the impressive Shaun Marsh, while RP Singh opened the bowling for the Chargers. Marsh threw caution to the winds straightaway, as he hit Hyderabad's leading wicket-taker for a boundary and a six off successive deliveries in the very first over.

The move to bring in Venugopal Rao in the third over didn't seem to change things as the off spinner was clobbered for 12 runs in his first over. The same momentum continued into the next over as the Kings XI reached 50 in only 3.5 overs - that's the earliest any team got to the 50-run mark in the tournament.

Soon after notching up his fifty in only 23 balls (the second fastest in the tournament), Sangakkara threw it away, when he came down the track to part-time off spinner Rohit Sharma with an intent of hitting over long off, but didn't get the elevation and was caught a few yards from the fence.

Marsh and Kings XI captain Yuvraj Singh then kept the scoreboard ticking with a 33-run partnership, coming at almost a run-a-ball. The introduction of Pragyan Ojha into the attack slowed down things comparatively. After conceding four runs in his first over, Ojha picked up the big wicket of Yuvraj Singh (17) in his second over.

Just when it looked as though Shaun Marsh was determined to see his team through to the end, he holed out to Gibbs at long on for a stroke-filled 60, with his team needing a further 39 runs from 26 balls. Ojha struck a big blow in the following over when he handed Luke Pomersbach (13) his first dismissal in the tournament. The bowler finished with figures of two for 30 from his four overs. The Mohali side, which was cruising at one point, had suddenly lost way and were now left needing 27 runs from three overs.

Styris' fourth over though, the penultimate over of the innings, swung the pendulum in favour of the hosts for one last time. Both Jayawardena and Chawla hit the Kiwi all-rounder for a six, and the match was all but sealed in favour of the hosts. In the following over, when the little Piyush Chawla hit his Uttar Pradesh teammate for a boundary off the third ball of the last over, the Kings XI had won their fifth win in six home games.

Shaun Marsh, who has been in the form of his life, bagged the Player of the Match award for a fourth time in the DLF Indian Premier League.