Deccan Chargers Fail Again

In a dramatic match on 13th May, 2009 between the Deccan Chargers and the Delhi Daredevils, the Chargers gifted the game away to the Daredevils. It may be called as a poor performance but I surely believe it was yet another day which was not in favor of the Chargers.

Luck turned its face away from the Chargers when they were bowling. With 3 dropped catches from the best fielders (Andrew Symmonds, Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao). If that was not enough the 6th and the 20th overs turned out to be the most expensive for the Chargers, 23 & 24 runs being scored off the 6th and the 20th over respectively was a matter of worry for the Chargers. Moreover the best in class bowlers being the one's to be hit was the most horrifying for any Chargers supporter (Chaminda Vaas & Shoaib Maqsusi) and the Daredevils went on to score a pinching 173/7 from their 20 overs.

The Chargers started of with a bang with Adam Gilchrist not allowing the Daredevils bowlers to settle down and the Chargers were 30/0 at the end of 2 overs. Though the Chargers skipper played sensibly he lost 2 partners on the other end (Suman & Rohit Sharma) who could not even reach their double digit figures. Rohit Sharma disappointing once again with his poor performance with the bat. The skipper then joined by Ravi Teja was given a handful support until when Adam Gilchrist was really unlucky to get an inside edge on to the stumps and was bowled by Sangwan. It seemed to slow down for the Chargers but Andrew Symmonds kept his form intact and continued to thrash the Daredevils bowlers all around the stadium. At a moment when it seemed the Chargers would be home with a stunning victory the luck again started turning away its face and Teja was caught for a mistimed pull shot to fine leg and the Chargers were 149/4 in 17 overs. With Andrew Symmonds & Dwayne Smith at the crease a target of 25 runs of just 18 balls would never had seemed impossible but as mentioned the Gods of luck turned away their face from the Chargers and Andrew Symmonds was clean bowled by a low full toss that brushed his pads and castled his stumps. It was from here that the Chargers completely lost their way and gifted a winning match to the Daredevils with Dwayne Smith, Venugopal Rao (known as one of the biggest hitters of the ball) scoring just 1 run each. Chaminda Vaas tried to pull some runs and remained unbeaten on 10 off 6 balls with 1 boundary but lost partners as the tail (RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Shoaib Maqsusi) were back into the pavillion without scoring a single run and the Chargers ended with a score of 161/10.

Although it was a very disappointing and unlucky loss for the Chargers Adam Gilchrist went on to clinch the award for the most sixes but at the end of the day what matters the most is a win. Well I am really sure that the upcoming matches for the Deccan Chargers against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab are gonna be tough ones seeing the past performances of each of these teams but I am sure Deccan Chargers will strike back and will make its place into the Semi-Finals quite easily.