Deccan keep charging ahead by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers
Player:	ML Hayden, AC Gilchrist, HH Gibbs
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009

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DateLine: 27th April 2009

 

Four out of four, and when you think Deccan Chargers are in trouble, start thinking again. If it is not skipper Adam Gilchrist, or Rohit Sharma, it is Herschelle Gibbs, and the man made a sensational contribution as the Hyderabad side registered their fourth straight win, overcoming Chennai Super Kings by six wickets.

 

There was a stage in the middle of the second half of the Deccan innings when the batting seemed to be on an unsteady keel, with Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith going rather quickly, but the assault at the beginning and the surgical precision at the end made it pretty much a cakewalk.

 

The beginning was incredible. Gilchrist did what he does best, carting the ball all over the park, putting all the bowlers on the rack. Deccan rustled up 50 runs off 3.3 overs, the fastest ever in the IPL, and it looked like they may well finish the proceedings a few overs early.

 

That was will Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought on part-timer Suresh Raina, who managed to stop Gilchrist, a soft dismissal after the complete domination he had displayed earlier.

 

Gilchrist was incredible. Forty-four runs off just 19 deliveries was something out of folklore and five boundaries and three sixes really took the attack to the Chennai bowlers. It took some inspiration for Dhoni, ironically taking a cue from Gilchrist, to bring on the slower non-regulars, which managed to stem the flow.

 

That however gave Gibbs time to get into a groove, and that in the final estimate decided the issue.

 

At the same time, Gibbs showed how he has grown in stature. Somehow maturity and Gibbs don’t seem to go together. He has his various discipline issues, be it on the field or while driving, but Monday’s display was one of the most collected and poised ever from the South African.

 

Deccan are in sensational momentum now, but they really do need to take stock of how their middle-order is doing. Sharma has been pretty consistent but Laxman could well be looking at a place in the stands if he continues in his current form. He hasn’t done anything with the bat so far, and given that he has little to offer elsewhere, there could well be question mark about whether he is good enough to block a place.

 

Earlier, the Chennai innings looked destined to cross the magic 180-run mark especially when Matthew Hayden and Raina were at the crease. A 64-run stand looked to be a promising thing for the Chennai boys, especially since the medium-pacers were being carted all over the park. But Gilchrist called on his slower bowlers, the part-timers in Venugopal Rao and Rohit Sharma, and the latter soon had the measure of Raina.

 

Dhoni seems to have been too taken up with this dual role of wicket-keeping and captaincy, and his batting, while not being down in the dumps, is surely short of his usual murderous self. A run-a-ball 22 is good, but not great.

 

But it is the mid-innings break that is seemingly taking maximum toll on batsmen. Gilchrist brought on his only specialist spinner in Pragyan Ojha and both batsmen, Dhoni and Hayden, obliged, falling to the left-armer in the same over, and that effectively took care the anticipated 180-plus score.

 

That brought together Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel, and the New Zealand-South Africa combine set about trying to amass a big enough total to inflict the first defeat on Deccan Chargers. Oram especially grabbed the opportunity with both hands, making the most of the vacancy left by the injured Andrew Flintoff and Dhoni honestly should be happy, since the Englishman had done precious little.

 

But Morkel seems to have gone off the boil a bit, and though he did manage to keep a decent strike rate, he didn’t really do it long enough. It was largely left to Oram to hammer the innings into some sort of shape, which he did in pretty decent manner, scoring 41 off 29 balls with the aid of four boundaries and two sixes.

 

Gilchrist used his bowlers brilliantly, bringing on the slower bowlers as soon as he realised that the medium-paced stuff would suffer. Ojha bowled just two overs, but did enough, while the pick of the bowlers was Fidel Edwards. He was just too fast to hit consistently.