Chargers left starving for 1 run

In the most disappointing match of the tournament the Deccan Chargers lost to the Kings XI Punjab on Sunday (17-05-2009). After their poor performance with the bowl but a classic show by Rohit Sharma with the bat on Saturday against the Kolkata Knight Riders the Deccan Chargers went in to play against the Kings XI Punjab without any rest for the players. Although it seemed as if the players might be stressed and tired the bowlers did a better job than their previous match and restricted the Kings XI Punjab to 134/7 in 20 overs after the Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist winning the toss elected to field first. RP Singh picket up 3 wickets to move up the order for claiming the Purple Cap with total 19 wickets in the tournament. Andrew Symmonds, Venugopal Rao and Pragyan Ojha being the best with the ball were just given 2 overs each to bowl. Kumar Sangakkara was the pick of the batsmen for the Kings XI Punjab, he scored 56 off 43 balls with 4 boundaries and 1 six.

However after a good start with the ball the Deccan Chargers needed to get to a good start considering the fact the ball might turn in the later part of the match. As always Adam Gilchrist went onto hit some big shots and the Chargers were 30/0 in 3 overs. When it just seemed at the end of the 3rd over Adam Gilchrist was on fire, Yuvraj Singh made the change in bowling and took the risk of introducing a spinner (Ramesh Powar) in the 5th over with fielding restrictions still on. A change that could have costed the Kings XI Punjab turned out to be a match turner in the initial stage. Adam Gilchrist tried to hit over the top by coming down the wicket but was completely deceived by the spin and was stumped by the wicket keeper. With Just a 104 runs to get off 94 balls for victory and Herschelle Gibbs and Suman at the crease it seemed quite easy but that was not the end and Suman lost his wicket on the very first ball he faced, looking to drive a flighted delivery Suman lost completely on the spin and was bowled by Ramesh Powar. With 2 wickets in 2 balls the Deccan Chargers seemed to be in trouble and pressure but with Andrew Symmonds coming to the crease and hitting a 4 of the first delivery he faced it eased out the pressure for the Chargers.

Both Gibbs and Symmonds played sensibly to take the Chargers to a good score at the end of 10th over and the Chargers were 65/2. Though the score was less it seemed as if the Chargers will be home comfortably but that never happened. Gibbs got out on the last ball of the 12th over off Yuvraj bowling and soon on the first 2 balls of the 14th over Yuvraj claimed the wickets of Symmonds and Venugopal Rao and became the first bowler to claim 2 hat-tricks in the IPL in the same season. With the Chargers down to 81/5 in the 14th over the responsibility was once again on Rohit Sharma to take them to victory and as expected Rohit Sharma tried his best and hit Wilkin Mota for 18 runs in the 18th over. With the Chargers needing anonther 26 runs to win in the last 2 overs and Ravi Teja on strike, he had to give his best to bring Rohit Sharma on strike and while trying to do so Ravi Teja got run out and lost his wicket off Brett Lee's bowling. However, Rohit Sharma was back on strike and he hit a 4 and a 6 off Brett Lee and stealed a single off the last ball to keep the strike in the last over when the Chargers needed just 11 runs to win. It seemed as if the Chargers had taken away the match since the 11 runs were not very difficult to get seeing the performance of Rohit Sharma the previous night against Kolkata Knight Riders, who scored a massive 26 runs of the last over to take the Chargers to a stunning victory.

As Irfan Pathan came onto bowl in the last over Rohit Sharma scored 6 runs off the first 2 balls. Now needing 5 to win from 4 balls seemed quite possible and with a wide on the 3rd ball and needing 4 off 4 balls was never a tough task is what everyone would have thought but on the 3rd ball that was re-bowled due to a wide proved to be unlucky for the Chargers and Rohit Sharma missed a slow ball completely and the ball hit the stumps leaving the Chargers with a target of 4 runs to get to win in 3 balls. The new batsmen RP Singh on strike tried to score but couldn't on the first ball he faced and the target to still 4 off 2 balls made RP Singh try for a big one with no options left and he got a top edge and Pathan took the catch off his own bowling to leave the Deccan Chargers starving for the last 4 runs they needed to win the match. Though the next batsmen in was Jaskaran Singh he was not on strike since by the time catch was taken Ryan Harris had crossed the pitch and was now on strike. With 4 runs to get to victory and 3 to tie the match the Deccan Chargers needed a huge shot which Ryan Harris did try but could manage only 2 off the last ball leaving the Chargers with a loss by just a mere 1 run. What a disappointing and bad time for the Deccan Chargers team, management as well the fans.

Considering the fact Deccan Chargers would have won the match they would have moved up the points table to the 1st position above the Delhi Daredevils and also into the Semis. The Deccan Chargers who are still down with 14 points at the 3rd position now need to win their final match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers on Thursday to make their place into the Semi-Finals.