IPL 2 – Day Nineteen – Rohit hat-tricks Deccan to victory
There was only one match on day nineteen. Between Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers.
It was a big match for both the teams as both were coming into the match with loses in their previous outings.
Deccan Chargers, after three consecutive losses out of seven having won the first four; Mumbai Indians after having been destructed by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Having won just three of seven matches played, Mumbai Indians needed a win from this match more than Deccan Chargers. At the start of the match I picked Mumbai Indians as my favorites because Deccan had lost three matches in a row and seemed to have lost some momentum.
Deccan Chargers won the toss and batted first. Though they didn’t lose any wicket in the first over, IPL jinx still played out claiming one of the two openers for a duck – Gibbs got out in the second over of the match to new boy Dhawal Kulkarni.
Gilchrist stayed for longer time playing a rather cautious innings this time around. T Suman, who came in at the fall of Gibbs wicket, was the attacking partner and scored a 13 ball 20 with one four and two sixes. Suman looks like a superb striker of the ball but has to learn to play longer innings like Suresh Raina does for Chennai Super Kings. If he gets that temperament – though it is very difficult to expect that in a T/20 match but still he can choose the right ball to hit to keep his wicket in tact – he will be a star player in the future.
The short partnership between Gilchrist and Suman produced 29 runs of which 20 was scored by Suman while Gilli was uncharacteristically slow at the other end. I thought he was laying a solid foundation for a onslaught later in the innings. But it didn’t happen. Gilli was the third to depart, bowled for 25 after having faced half of the 9.4 overs till then bowled. Dwayne Smith didn’t have the luck that he enjoyed in the previous match and got out for 16 (1 four, 1 six).
Rohit Sharma was the pick of the Deccan batting with ease and compiling 38 vital runs and ending up the top scorer. He got good support from Venugopal Rao, who at last found some form but for unfortunate to be run out trying to steal a second run but the police behind the wicket didn’t allow the theft to happen.
Thus, Deccan ended up with 145 challenging Mumbai Indians’ power batting (Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, Duminy, Bravo and Nayar) to have a charge. At that stage, I thought it would be a walk down the Marine Drive for Mumbai Indians.
Before I could finish that sentence in my mind (I always keep thinking about what to write in the blog) Jayasuriya was walking back to the pavilion (I noted that to change their dress they still go to the pavilion and do not do that at the dug out, in full view of the beautiful girls, including those vying for a bollywood breakthru).
The next delivery say Tendulkar getting bowled and walking back to the pavilion. It happened so soon that I felt Sanath would not have even completed climbing up the steps to the pavilion. Had Tendulkar run instead of walking he would have caught up with Jayasuriya.
So chasing 146 for win, Mumbai was already on the back foot by the second over. Once again it was J P Duminy doing the repair work for Mumbai Indians. But he didn’t much support from anyone else except briefly from Pinal Shah who scored 29 at a fast clip taking only 19 balls. As long as Shah and Duminy were together Mumbai had some hope. At the departure of Shah, procession started and as has been the case in this IPL, Duminy once again failed to finish things for Mumbai Indians.
To be fair, one has to record that the luck factor was firmly with Deccan Chargers on day nineteen, especially with Rohit Sharma. Nothing else will explain Rohit, a part time bowler getting a hat-trick which actually sealed the fate of Mumbai Indians.
Mumbai Indians were cruising along at 100/4 when Rohit came into bowl. Needing just 46 for a victory with six wickets in hand and five more overs to go. Rohit struck gold in the fifth and sixth deliveries of his first over giving away just two runs. He removed Shah of the fifth ball and Harbhajan, in order to encourage Rohit, gave his wicket as a gift off the sixth delivery. Rohit came back in the next over to remove J P Duminy off the first ball and thus became the second bowler in this IPL to get a hat-trick. He went on to add one more to his tally and finished with 4-6.
Rohit, who was the highest run getter for Deccan with 38 runs also got the rare distinction of being the highest wicket taker and the winner of the man of the match award.
With this win, Deccan kept its semi-final hopes alive while Mumbai’s semi-final hopes have more or less evaporated, unless they won all their remaining matches.
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