IPL
Chargers power to victory
2011-04-27 19:55
Kochi - Ishant Sharma served up a stunning exhibition of new ball bowling to lead the Deccan Chargers to a crushing 55-run win over the Kochi Tuskers Kerala in their IPL match at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old paceman Sharma returned figures of five for 12 off three
overs as the Chargers, who had posted 129 for seven, bowled Kochi out
for a paltry 74 in 16.3 overs.
At one stage Sharma, who extracted appreciable bounce and seam movement
on a pitch which was a fast bowler’s dream, had figures of five for six
as Kochi plummeted to a scarcely believable 11 for six.
Sharma took his five wickets in the space of 11 legitimate deliveries as
he easily eclipsed his previous best IPL figures of two for 15.
Sharma was aided in his demolition job by fellow new-ball bowler Dale Steyn, who finished with three for 16 off 3.3 overs.
Steyn struck the first blow, when he had Brendon McCullum (0) caught behind, before Sharma took centre stage.
The tall quick had Parthiv Patel (0) caught behind before he bowled
Raiphi Gomez (0) with a superb delivery which nipped back at the
right-handed batsman.
Sharma then produced a dot ball and a wide before he served another
delivery that nipped back off the seam and kept a touch low as he bowled
Brad Hodge (2).
Sharma picked up where he had left off in his next over when he trapped
Kedar Jadhav (0) leg-before with a straight delivery before he removed
Mahela Jaywardene (4) with the last ball of his second over when
Jayawardene walked after nicking off to keeper Kumar Sangakkara.
Kochi were in real danger of beating the unwanted record of the lowest
team total in IPL history, just 58 scored by the Rajasthan Royals.
Thisara Perera (22) and Ravindra Jadeja (23) tried their best to repair the damage with a 36-run seventh-wicket stand.
But Perera fell when he spliced an attempted pull shot off the bowling
of seamer Manpreet Gony straight to cover as Kochi stuttered to 48 for
seven.
Jadeja departed in the 16th over when the left-handed batsman smashed a
delivery from leg-spinner Amit Mishra to Dan Christian at deep extra
cover.
Steyn then completed the easy victory in the space of two balls as he
bowled Vinay Kumar (18) and RP Singh (0) as seven Kochi batsmen
registered ducks.
Sangakkara had earlier played a captain’s innings as his vital half-century helped the Chargers to their final total.
The Chargers, after losing the toss and being asked to bat, crumpled to
20 for three as their top-order failed to cope with the swing that
Kochi’s fast bowlers extracted with the new ball.
The visitors' plight could have been a lot worse as Sangakkara was
bowled off a no-ball from paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth when the
former Sri Lanka skipper had scored just five.
Sangakkara shrugged off the near miss to race to his fifty off 39 balls
before slashing his way to 65 off 47 deliveries with his knock including
10 sparkling fours.
The left-handed Sangakkara was aided in his rescue efforts by Cameron
White as the pair plundered 90 runs off 11.3 overs for the fourth
wicket.
White’s innings was far from the most fluent the right-handed batsman
has ever played, as he scored just seven runs off the first 18 balls
that he faced, and he was particularly troubled by the swinging ball.
But he eventually battled his way to 31 off 34 balls before he holed out
to deep midwicket off the bowling of seamer Kumar in the 17th over.
Kumar struck with his next ball when he had Sangakkara caught behind by keeper Patel, with the keeper standing up to the stumps.
Singh was superb with the new ball and he ended with figures of two for
21 off four overs while Kumar also impressed as he returned figures of
three for 25.
Teams:
Kochi Tuskers Kerala: BB McCullum, DPMD Jayawardene (capt), RA Jadeja, BJ Hodge, KM Jadhav, PA Patel (wk), RV Gomez, R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, NLTC Perera, S Sreesanth
Deccan Chargers: S Sohal, S Dhawan,
KC Sangakkara (capt & wk), CL White, DT Christian, B Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, A Mishra, DW Steyn, MS Gony, I Sharma