The Hunt Continues

Posted by Abhishek Kamble in IPL on 04 13th, 2010 | no responses

Harmeet_Singh Yesterday’s match between the defending champion Hyderabad and runner-up Banglore was almost the repeat of IPL2009 finals. You just can’t stop drawing the similarities between the two matches. A virtual final for Hyderabad, Bangalore winning the toss and chosing to field first, Gilchrist out on a duck, Deccan bowlers doing an excellent job, Hermeet Singh picking two wickets. He conceded 23 runs in four overs in the final last year and yesterday he conceded 24 runs in 4, Bangalore scored 137 in the final and 138 yesterday and thus loosing both matches!!

Coming back to yesterday’s match Bangalore got more than the perfect start. Dale Steyn bowled with a lot of fire. He gave two blows to Deccan right in the first over. The fourth ball of the first over he angled it across to Gilly, slight movement in the air away from Gilchrist who nicked it to Uthappa. With Gilchrist out on duck, on the first ball he faced, walked in T Suman the anchor of last two wins for the Deccan. But even before the Deccan supporters could come to terms with loss of Gilchrist, Suman was walking back to the dug out. Steyn had banged in a short delivery and all Suman could manage was a clumsy flick to short fine leg. Taylor was placed perfectly and he picked up the easiest of the catch. Hyderabad was two down with just one run on board.

Coming back to bowl his second over Steyn was driven for a four by Gibbs, who had also hit a clean Six in the previous over. And one delivery after that Steyn struck again. A full length delivery pitched on the middle and off went straight, missed completely by Gibbs, to rattle the stumps. The score card read 3 overs 16 for 3.

Deccan needed a strong, steady partnership to recover from these early blows. At the crease were Rohit Sharma and Monish Mishra. Mishra looked in good touch. Both the batsmen played sensibly. They cautiously played out the third over of Steyn. Mainly concentrating on singles and doubles they ensured that at least one big hit came in the every over. With this they improved the run rate from 5.5 to 7.91. Just when it looked like the partnership was well set a complete miscommunication led to run out of Mishra. R Sharma hit a cover drive and ran hard for two. After completing the single Sharma raised the hand, signaling Mishra to stop but Mishra just turned and ran without looking at him. A perfect throw at the wicketkeeper’s end by Steyn got Bangalore the breakthrough they needed. Rohit Sharma, Symonds and Harris took the score to a respectable 151.

Bangalore with strong and deep batting line up with most players in form looked good to win match. They too received an early blow with Harris striking on the first bowl of Bangalore inning getting Pandey out. Dravid came in next. Dravid was in ominous form. He hit some handsome shots in copy book style. Together with Kallis he took Bangalore to 72 runs halfway through the inning.

Kallis was a bit slow but continued to pick up the singles giving strike to Dravid. Dravid was on 49 when he tried to hit a big one on a slower delivery by Symonds. Suman took a good catch in the deep. Even with Dravid out Bangalore still had Kallis and Uthappa, Taylor, Kohli and White. But they lost Kallis, Kohli, Taylor and White in successive overs and from 77/2 in 11 overs they were reduced to 113/6 in 17 overs thus needing 39 runs from last 3 overs.

The dangerous Uthappa was still there. In the 18th over of Harris, he lofted two big sixes and scored 21 runs to reduce it to 18 runs form two overs. Gilchrist called Hermeet Singh to bowl the second last over. He turned it on. With Uthappa on strike he bowled a slower leg cutter. The batsmen completely missed it and was bowled – the most important wicket of the inning. The celebration had already started. On the very next delivery he got Steyn LBW. The match was almost over . Harris came in to bowl the last over. The formality was finished with R Vinay getting bowled on a yorker and K Appanna being run out. Hyderabad had done it again and won the match by 13 runs.

It was a good team effort. All the bowlers picked up wickets. The fielding was good especially Suman who took three superb catches to claim important wickets of Dravid, Kallis and Kohli. P Ojha holds on to his purple cap claming 2 wickets. Hyderabad has pushed Bangalore in make-or-brake situation and continues their hunt for perfect finish.

CS PLAYERS POINT TABLE

Points for this Post: -