“Ojha Re Ojha” – is the new line they have added to the lyrics.

Deccan Chargers knew that Sachin just turned 36.  Deccan Chargers would have given some gifts on Sachin’s birthday.  Sachin being Sachin didn’t want to send them back empty handed.  As a return gift, Sachin gave the match in a platter to Deccan. Receiving the gift, Deccan created a new record winning as many matches already in this tournament as they won in the entire campaign last year.

Deccan Chargers scored 168 runs in the allotted twenty overs – same as what Royal Challengers scored against Kings XI Punjab – but finished on the winning side unlike BRC. There were more similarities between the two matches (other than both being played on the same ground).

It is getting more and more clear as this tournament progresses that only two teams out of eight have a lethal opening pair. Delhi Daredevils with Viru and Gambhir and Deccan Chargers with Gilli and Gibbs.

Gilli took off from where he left in the last match and tore apart the Mumbai Indian bowling but it was Zaheer Khan who was hurt more than Malinga the slinga. Deccan had ran up 60+ on the board before Gilli fell for Bravo, who was really the pick of Mumbai Indian bowlers.

Though Gilli departed, Gibbs continued the onslaught with Dwayne Smith promoted to No.3 for this match saying “Very Very Sorry” Lakshman!

Gibbs ended up making a super 58 in 44 balls with 2 sixes and 6 fours while Smith hit up 35 off 22 balls with two “DLF maximums” and two sponsor less fours. Rest of the batting of Deccan contributed a number each for some secret 7 digit telephone number which was actually the result of the decoding ability of Mallinga (3), Bravo (2) and Bhajji (1) while one number decoded itself even while remaining not out! (Not out, yet out! paradoxical isn’t it?)

In reply, even though they last the big hitter Jayasuriya cheaply, Tendulkar and that South Africa’s super find from Australian tour – Duminy played very well for ten overs to comfortably place Mumbai Indians on path to victory – having scored 50% of the required runs exactly at half time.

But, the strategy break once again proved more advantageous for the fielding team and Mumbai Indians started losing ground quickly starting with the loss of Sachin’s wicket to the hero of the evening – Pragyan Ojha. Other than Sachin and Duminy none of the other Mumbai Indian batsman looked like capable of chasing the remaining runs without much panic. As the run rate climbed up Harbhajan tried to elevate himself from a comedian (he is the comedian in the new Idea Cellular advertisement series) to a hero with some real good power hits over and to the boundary. But Ojha didn’t allow him to cross the boundary much longer.

One should not forget mentioning the superb bowling display of the Orange Cap RP Singh in this tournament. He did well once again in this match taking his total tally to 8 wickets in three matches. He sure relishes bowling in South African conditions.

The other match at Capetown between Kolkatta Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings was a thriller – the thrill being switching on to SetMax every now and again to check if the game would start or not. Ultimately this match also ended in a tie like the previous KKR match against Rajasthan Royals. Instead of super overs we saw supersoppers. Since the super over was not pressed into service, the points were equally split between KKR and CSK.

Match tied by rain also solved my predicament. When two of my favorites were pitted against each other – whom will I support? Dada or Dhoni? Srini or Shah Rukh? Curd Rice or Fish Curry? Intelligent Captaincy or Brendon McCullum (for Dada’s sake)?

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