Symonds starred in an impressive all-round effort, racing to 35 and picking up three wickets, to help Deccan Chargers achieve their third consecutive victory in the IPL – a result in contrast to Delhi Daredevils’ run in the competition, as they slipped to their third defeat in as many games despite a counter-attack from captain Dinesh Karthik. Symonds’ effort was backed up by an attacking knock from Rohit Sharma, who burst into spotlight after a quiet start to the competition to take Deccan to a challenging score, which proved just about adequate for them to continue their winning ways.
Deccan will look back at three stages where they came up trumps to snatch the game. They ensured the task of posting a competitive total was achieved, as Rohit and T Suman added 60 in quick time after three threatening innings by Deccan’s overseas batsmen – Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Symonds – had been cut short by timely changes in bowling; they fought back in the middle overs after David Warner and AB de Villiers had combined to give Delhi a strong foundation for a successful chase; and they saw off a late scare from Karthik, who blasted 46 off 27. Symonds, bowling seam-up, bagged two wickets, including Karthik, off successive balls in the penultimate over to help seal a tight win.
The start to Delhi’s chase was encouraging, as Warner began in ruthless fashion and followed that up with steady progress once the restrictions were lifted, underlining his determination to see his team through. While reaffirming his reputation as a big hitter, smashing four fours and two sixes in the first two overs, he proved equally adept nudging the ball around for singles and twos in the later overs.
Chaminda Vaas, among the most economical bowlers in the tournament, was taken for nine in his opening over. His partner RP Singh continued to be expensive, wilting to a brutal assault from Warner who alternated between clearing the ropes and drilling the bowler to the long-off boundary. A length delivery was sent over long-on and when RP held back to bowl short, he was flat-batted over point for another six.
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Deccan, though, got rid of a major obstacle early in the chase, as Virender Sehwag suffered a rare lapse, miscuing Pragyan Ojha to be caught superbly by Gibbs. But de Villiers kept Warner good company, supporting him in a 51-run stand that gave Delhi the upper hand with two set batsman in the middle.
The partnership’s end, however, marked a decisive moment in Delhi’s chase. Warner attempted an impossible run, to be caught short at the striker’s end; de Villiers soon fell, bowled off a full toss from Rahul Sharma in the 13th over, and when Mithun Manhas skied the same bowler to Suman 14 balls later, the game had turned Deccan’s way. Moises Henriques, struck two fours but sliced Symonds to RP at point to make it 132 for 5 in the 17th over.
Rahul had enjoyed a successful start to his IPL season but Karthik’s attack in the 18th over spoiled his figures. With his team in need of a desperate revival, Karthik bludgeoned Rahul through midwicket for a four and six, followed by a fearsome cut through point for a boundary. Symonds, too, was welcomed with a slash through point on the first ball of the next over, but showed sharp reflexes to send Karthik on his way, plucking an uppish drive with his outstretched right hand. Amit Mishra was caught behind the next delivery and Vaas bowled a typically miserly final over to finish things off.
The track in Cuttack was conducive to spin, taking turn and some extra bounce and Delhi used the conditions well, opting for a change in strategy, opening the bowling with a spinner. The slow bowlers grabbed the first three wickets; Monish Mishra and Gilchrist, who had blasted 24 off 14, and Gibbs, who, after smacking Dirk Nannes for two fours and two sixes, cut Yogesh Nagar straight to point. Symonds, with the confidence of two half-centuries behind him, looked ominous during his knock, finding the ropes with ease using the conventional shots but a mistimed slog put an end to his stay, as he slapped one straight to extra cover in the 14th over.
Suman, though, kept Deccan on course, picking out Henriques and Nannes for three boundaries before Rohit took off at the other end. Umesh Yadav was smashed for 18 in the 17th over, pulled over square leg and struck over long-on for sixes and sliced over point for a boundary. Henriques, too, wasn’t spared, as he was dispatched over the ropes by Rohit in the next over, which fetched another 14. His parting shot was a steer over point off Nannes before a miscue to mid-off ended his innings. The final two overs yielded just 15, but Deccan’s bowlers were able to put an under-performing Delhi under pressure and accomplish a hard-fought win.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, IPL
India, say hello to the Mongoose, the shorter, thicker bat with the longer handle. You already knew Matthew Hayden, but might have forgotten him momentarily after his ordinary start this year. On Friday, the two combined in a deadly manner. Hayden smacked 93 off 43 balls to almost singlehandedly chase down Delhi Daredevils’ imposing target. Delhi’s innings featured a similarly dominant effort. If Hayden scored 93 of the 142 while at crease, Virender Sehwag pummelled 74 out of 103.
That Hayden’s effort was longer meant Chennai Super Kings prevailed in the battle of superb fielding. Three good catches from Chennai’s stand-in captain, Suresh Raina, and a spectacular effort at the boundary from Justin Kemp, a near replica of his ICL catch, kept Delhi under 200. Tillakaratne Dilshan took a blinder charging in from long-on to deny Hayden a century, and Chennai a jitterless finish.
Delhi, and their new captain Dinesh Karthik, will wonder if they brought Dirk Nannes back too late – in the 13th over – and why the bouncer was not tried against the Mongoose. It was not as if Hayden necessarily needed the new bat to cause wreckage.
By the time he called out for the Mongoose, Hayden had already smashed four boundaries off his first nine balls. That may have given him the confidence to call for the newest beast in town. It was not as if Hayden necessarily needed the new bat to hit the five fours and seven sixes that followed in the next 34 deliveries he faced.
His hitting was so clean that it perhaps didn’t need the rumoured 20% extra bat power on most of the occasions. Only the second of three sixes in Dilshan’s over – the eighth of the innings – was mis-hit, but the ball managed to sail over wide long-on. That six also brought up his fifty, off 24 balls, and by the end of the over, he had reached 61, and Chennai 85.
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Raina takes three: Catches, that is, but they were important wickets that kept pulling the Delhi innings back, and might have saved Chennai a crucial 10-12 runs
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Dilshan brings Delhi back: After the havoc caused by Hayden and Mongoose, Tillakaratne Dilshan produced a special catch to give Delhi a sniff, and two quick wickets followed to leave Chennai at 167 for 4 after 18 overs
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More down-the-ground carnage followed in the next four overs, and Hayden had reached 87 off 37 with Chennai needing just 57 off 48, when Nannes was called back. A tight over later, Hayden hit Amit Mishra powerfully down the ground, and Dilshan ran in and caught it inches off the ground. Would it have carried had it been hit with a normal bat?
Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp failed to contribute much, and the onus fell on Raina after Chennai lost three wickets for 27 runs. However, he kept picking up boundaries – six of them – whenever the equation started to look tricky, and his unbeaten 49 carried Chennai home with five balls to spare.
With the way Sehwag was going, though, Raina’s team was looking at a much bigger target. His 38-ball 74 came as easy as his strolled singles, but Chennai managed to create and latch on to more catching opportunities to slow down Delhi just about enough in the last eight overs.
Sehwag’s innings took about as much time as it took David Warner and Dilshan to struggle and get out, managing 21 off 32 between them. Sehwag was in the scoring zone right from the first ball he faced, flicking it neatly to midwicket. He found the middle of the bat and the gaps started appearing from the second ball on. In the first eight overs, he displayed almost the whole array of effective Twenty20 shots: hits down the ground, through extra cover, over wide long-on and midwicket, and the square-cut.
The first over he faced from Muttiah Muralitharan, though, was the highlight. He came down the track first ball, Murali bowled flat, he checked his shot. Anticipated a flat delivery next up, he stayed back and opened the face to beat short third man. The standout shot came later in the over when he waited even more and took the ball from in front of stumps, guiding it to the left of short third this time. By the end of that over, eighth of the innings, Sehwag had scored 61 off 28, out of the team’s total of 79.
Just in time, Kemp produced the moment of inspiration, jumping at the right time and taking a one-handed catch behind his body at the long-off boundary. Immediately before and after that, Raina produced two good catches to get rid of Dilshan and AB de Villiers.
With 7.3 overs still to go, there was time enough for either side to win or lose. Although the balance was retained, the 78 that Karthik, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia added proved to be inadequate when compared to Hayden and his Mongoose.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Chennai Super King, Delhi Daredevils, IPL
Tournament heavyweights Delhi Daredevils crashed to a 98-run defeat against an inspired Mumbai Indians outfit that seemed determined to set the lopsided head-to-head record straight and, in the process, went to the top of the points table. Quickfire sixties from Sachin Tendulkar and Saurabh Tiwary took Mumbai to an imposing 218 but a batting line-up capable of overhauling the biggest of targets was bowled out with more than three overs to spare.
 Delhi were already handicapped by the loss of Gautam Gambhir to a hamstring pull early in the match so it was up to the middle order to anchor a big chase. But the loss of a steadying hand in Gambhir showed up as the likes of Virender Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan performed well below expectation. The backup for those heavyweights had little time in which to plot and execute a Yusuf Pathan-like counterattack.
Dilshan began the chase on an audacious note by slapping the first ball over mid-off for four. It was an emphatic way to get off the mark after two consecutive ducks, and Delhi motored along at a rate marginally faster than Mumbai after three overs. Mumbai had to dislodge at least one of the opening duo of Dilshan and Virender Sehwag, and the first breakthrough came through Lasith Malinga in the fourth over. After firing it in the blockhole to keep Dilshan under check, he bowled a slower ball and sent the off stump for a spin as the batsman swished at thin air.
The expectations on Sehwag only increased but he was the first victim of double-strike by Dwayne Bravo in the seventh over. Trying to clear long-off, he made contact off the toe-edge of the bat straight down Ambati Rayudu’s throat. Four balls later, AB de Villiers dragged one onto his stumps and the momentum had firmly swung in Mumbai’s favour. A flurry of boundaries by Dinesh Karthik – three in a row – raised some hope, but he too joined the exodus, courtesy a brilliant stumping down the leg side by Aditya Tare. When Manhas perished in the tenth over, Delhi had lost half their side, and with Gambhir indisposed, the match had ceased to be a contest.
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Bravo’s double-strike: The seventh over, by Bravo, left Delhi in deep trouble. Sehwag fell off the first ball and four balls later, de Villiers followed. Delhi slipped to 58 for 3
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The pitch was nothing like the minefield which forced the abandonment of the one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka a few months ago. Evenly paced, Tendulkar showed just how easy it was to get to the pitch and pick the gaps with deft touches and delicate clips. It was similar to the way he started his innings in Gwalior, where he scored a memorable 200, squirting the ball past the gaps effortlessly.
Farveez Maharoof’s one-dimensional bowling – overusing the legcutter – made it easier for Tendulkar to plan his shots. After slicing Maharoof past backward point, he made Delhi pay for not placing a slip as he guided the next ball to third man. He then chipped down the track, got inside the line and played a glorious on drive past midwicket to give Delhi some anxious moments.
He brought up his fifty, off just 23 balls, with a paddle to fine leg. Mishra had Tendulkar caught at long-off by the substitute Yogesh Nagar, who was earlier in the news for pulling off a one-handed blinder at mid-off to get rid of Sanath Jayasuriya. Filling in for Gambhir, Nagar had to propel himself backwards a long way but managed to time his leap to perfection.
Significantly, Tiwary and Rayudu didn’t allow things to drift after Tendulkar departed. The over after his dismissal went for just three but the pair ensured they picked at least one boundary in every over during their 71-run stand, in just short of seven overs. If Tendulkar was all nonchalance, Tiwary and Rayudu were all about brute power. Tiwary employed the slog sweep against the spinners, staying in the crease and muscling three sixes. Rayudu used his feet a lot more, regularly chipping down the track to clear the rope. Mishra tried firing it flatter and shorter with the hope of getting the ball to shoot through but the batsmen were alert enough to slap them away.
By the time Delhi dislodged the pair, Mumbai were already on 193 with a little more than two overs left. Promoting Tiwary and Rayudu over the two West Indians – Bravo and Pollard – had proved to be a productive move. The Caribbean duo combined to push the score to 218 – the highest in this tournament so far – which was more than enough to stamp their dominance.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Mumbai Indians
The Delhi Daredevils fast bowler Ashish Nehra will continue to miss the initial few weeks of the IPL due to a rib injury he picked up during training in Mohali last week. Eric Simons, Delhi’s assistant coach, confirmed Nehra would be out of action for as long as two weeks but was quick to add the squad “would not miss him” too much.
Nehra was a key figure in Delhi’s IPL campaign in South Africa last year, taking 19 wickets to finish the third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament. That achievement factored hugely in his return to the Indian side last summer.
In his absence, Delhi’s attack will be led by the left-arm quick Dirk Nannes, who has been outstanding in the team’s first two matches.
written by Swapnil
\\ tags: ashish nehra, Delhi Daredevils, IPL
A disciplined performance by the Delhi Daredevils bowlers and a blistering innings from Virender Sehwag inflicted on Rajasthan Royals their second defeat in as many games. A battling half-century from Abhishek Jhunjhunwala lent Rajasthan’s total some respectability but it was a woefully inadequate one to defend given Sehwag’s onslaught.
Rajasthan were made to regret their poor batting in the first over of the chase, as Sehwag blazed away, swinging Dimitri Mascarehnas over square leg and mid-on for two boundaries. The seamers bowled either too full or offered him the desired width to break free – Shaun Tait was cut fiercely through point, and Munaf Patel was dispatched over long-off for a six and past mid-on for a boundary in the third over.
There were a couple of moments of hope for Rajasthan. Mascarenhas returned in the fourth over to snare Gautam Gambhir, who mistimed a slower one to mid-on, and got one to move away to produce an outside edge from Tillakaratne Dilshan the next ball. The wickets made no difference to Sehwag’s approach – nor, ultimately, to Rajasthan’s fortunes – as he skied Mascarenhas when on 41 only to be dropped by Tait while running back from short fine leg – another low on what’s so far been a poor IPL for the Australian.
Having smote Mascarenhas for 10 runs off two deliveries, Sehwag proceeded to target Amit Uniyal’s medium-pacers, walloping him for six over long-off, upper-cutting him wide of third man to reach his half-century and striking through the line of a length delivery to dispatch it over long-on. The parting shot before being caught brilliantly by Graeme Smith at mid-on was a thunderous six over the bowler’s head; Delhi were 99 for 3 when he fell in the 10th over, and Dinesh Karthik, with the luxury of a set platform, saw his team through.
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The setbacks hurt: Mishra, Maharoof and Sangwan grab three crucial wickets in 21 balls to turn the tide. Ojha is bowled, Yusuf Pathan holes out to long-on and Graeme Smith is caught while trying to pull.
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No stopping Sehwag: The wickets make no difference to Sehwag’s approach, as he stars with a blistering innings of 75 off 34 balls, falling only in the 10th over with the score on 99 and the win virtually sealed.
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Rajasthan, who wore black arm-bands in memory of the victims of a bus accident in Sawai Madhopur district, had begun positively after Gambhir had put them in. But they were dented by a testing first spell from Dirk Nannes and the early introduction of Amit Mishra, leaving an inexperienced middle order to contend with a determined display from the rest of Delhi’s bowlers who gave little opportunity to open up.
The conditions in Ahmedabad were hardly favourable with the dust from the parking lots surrounding the stadium kicking in, and adding to the haze from the floodlights. The surge of moths, flying across the pitch as well as the outfield, proved another irritant.
Swapnil Asnodkar and Smith, cashing in on some overpitched bowling from Farveez Maharoof, smacked two boundaries off the first three balls of the match. Nannes, like against Kings XI Punjab, continued to trouble the batsmen with his ability to generate bounce, even from bowling on a good length. He got rid of Asnodkar with his second delivery, which was sliced towards Dilshan who took a good low catch, and followed up with two snorters to Naman Ojha, one striking him on the shoulder.
Ojha, who had some success while opening the batting for Rajasthan in the previous IPL, resumed the attack after a momentary lull, thrashing Maharoof over mid-on and edging him over the slips. He reserved special treatment for Mishra, brought on in the fourth over, cutting and sweeping him for two boundaries and launching him into the stands over long-on. But Mishra undid him with his first variation of the over, slipping in the googly to bowl him through the gate as he tried to loft him over the covers.
With Yusuf Pathan lasting just five deliveries, failing to pick a slower delivery and holing out to long-on, and the experienced Smith following soon after to make it 50 for 4, Rajasthan were starting at a bleak prospect.
Paras Dogra, who had partnered Yusuf during his ruthless ton against Mumbai, and Jhunjhunwala, returning from the ICL, saw off a quiet phase during a nagging couple of overs from Pradeep Sangwan and Sarabjit Ladda; Rajasthan, at one stage, had played out 38 deliveries without a boundary. Replacing Yo Mahesh, Ladda varied his pace well, often surprising the batsmen with the quicker delivery but had his figures disturbed when the pair had stepped up, both hammering him for two sixes in a 17-run over.
Delhi saw to it they didn’t give too much away, with the run-outs of Dogra and Mascarenhas in successive overs. Jhunjhunwala, though, struck two boundaries off Nannes in the final over, reaching his fifty, to give his bowler’s more than an outside chance. Sehwag, however, ensured it was washed away.
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written by Swapnil
\\ tags: Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Rajasthan Royals
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