IPL 2 - Day Thirteen - Devils charge away Deccan

IPL 2 – Day Thirteen – Devils charge away Deccan

2 May 2009 342 views 2 Comments

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Day Thirteen was once again a double headache day. Sorry! a double header day. Two matches in a day puts more strain on my fingers than on the fingers of the spinners playing in those matches.

My keyboard cries, oh no, not again some lusty hits on me. Still I have to endure doing this as you endure reading what I press using the wordpress publishing engine.

The two matches were between:

a) Table leaders Deccan Chargers and Delhi Dare Devils.

b) Semi Final (still) hopefuls Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals

DC came into the match undefeated after four matches while Delhi had dropped one against Rajathan Royals due to the onslaught of Yousuf Pathan, while both CSK and Rajashan Royals were having a worse performance than in the previous IPL.

At the beginning of the day, my favorites for winning the matches were none for the first match – you can’t choose between two well performing teams very easily and CSK in the second match you can’t expect BRC to win a match, come on, be a man (have you heard Russel Peters? If not watch the short video below)

DC batted first – I am not going to write who won the toss – but only give you a small clue – in this IPL 99% of the times the team winning the toss wants to put the runs on the board (probably the scoreboard assistants are on leave!).

As usual, there was a wicket falling in the first over of the match (if it was KKR or Royal Challengers it falls on the first ball of the match). This time it was Hershy Gibbs who walked back to the dug out as he wanted to watch the match for a change.

Gilchrist had that rare failure in this edition scoring just eight runs. Mannes, another 30+ guy performing in this 20/20 competition, was the packer in chief.

Mannes and another 30+ Ashish Nehra (30 years and one day on the date of the match – April 30, 2009) bowled well as Deccan slowly recovered from the shock of losing the two explosive openers. It took the combined application of Rohit Sharma, Suman, Azharuddin and Venugopal Rao supporting a swashbuckling Dwayne Bravo to ensure Deccan posted some what winnable total of 148 on the board. (Azharuddin is not the Congress Candidate, but an youngster from BJP land Gujarat with surname Bilakhia).

When Devils commenced the chase, for a change, there was no wicket lost in the first over as both Sehwag and Gambhir, short of good scores this IPL showed cautious aggression in the first 21 balls of the innings (in Sehwag and Gambhir terms being cautious means scoring at the rate of just 10 runs an over). When Sehwag departed for 20 in 11 balls with four overs a bit of wobble started for Delhi Daredevils. But then Tilakaratne Dilshan was there as the new wall of Delhi to steer the team clear of any problems. Fortunately for Delhi Dinesh Karthick decided it was high time he scored some runs (were they discussing contract renewals?).

Dilshan posted one more fifty for him in this competition with three sixes and four fours while Karthick supported him with a well compiled 41 with three fours and one six that ensured Delhi won the match eight balls ahead and six wickets on hand. Thus the winning streak of Deccan was halted – but I think it is a temporary halt at Delhi for the Deccan express and they are still favorites to lift the cup this time around.

The second match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals was very important for both the teams. Shane Warne a Captain with different ideas won the toss and sent CSK in to bat, probably because of the confidence he had in Kamran Khan the bowler and Yousuf Pathan the reckless hitter for whom no run rate is difficult to chase.

Hayden is the chief run getter this IPL but he failed in this match as also Parthiv Patel. Then came one of the best batting displays seen in this IPL from the left handed Suresh Raina. Badrinath was promoted up the order for this match to No.4. Raina and Badrinath forged a good partnership in which Raina was the dominating partner with Bardrinath playing a supporting role.

Suresh Raina was on a rampage in this match hitting fours and sixes at will. After Badrinath departed he found an able partner in Captain Dhoni to compile a chanceless 98. He got out at 98 having been mislead by the giant scoreboard at the ground that he had reached century when he was still two runs short. The very next ball after ignorantly celebrating a hundred that was not to be, he holed out to the deep but Chennai had scored at the rate of 8 an over to reach 164.

Royal’s chase was never on target especially after they lost Ravinder Jadeja and Yousuf Pathan (20 in 8 balls with three fours). None else contributed anything worthwhile except for the R J Quiney (as opener). Balaji was the pick of the bowlers for Chennai with four wickets. None else other than Suresh Raina could be considered for man of the match award but he will surely be repenting getting out at 98 after prematurely celebrating a hundred.