One and Two and Three and Four, Deccan Chargers Give us more… As the voice of Sunny Khandelwal (I think it was him… not too sure though) rocked the Visakha Cricket Stadium (now called the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium thanks to the rulers of our nation), standing on the third floor of the Shivlal Yadav Pavilion, wearing a pink colored access card, I was wondering how much more to expect from this “Technically the Best Team in the IPL”? The loss at Kolkata was fresh in my mind. Though the newspaper run by the franchisee of Deccan Chargers screamed and shouted that it was the pitch and the lights and the umpires that did us in at Kolkata, I was sure that the KnightRiders batted on the same strip. A loss after all was a loss and had to be faced.
As the Deccan Chargers (I will call them DC now… The franchisee will be really happy with that), practiced in front of about 10,000 people in the stadium (the capacity is about 39000 and growing everyday… They are on an expansion spree), an hour before the game started everyone in the stadium including the guest singer Neeraj Sridhar of the Bombay Vikings, were confident that they will reduce the Delhi side to dust within three hours and everyone in Hyderabad will go home happy. And when Adam Gilchrist struck one that landed in the stands on the midwicket boundary off the modern McGrath, Mohammed Asif, people thought they were on the brink of realizing their dream of seeing a DC win. What followed was a continuation of the Kolkata failure. Gilly played on one from Asif soon after that marvelous shot and the one drop skipper Laxman had his timber thrown to winds by one that came back (!), from Asif. I was recollecting my childhood when we used to measure the distance the stump traveled after being hit. Laxman’s would have certainly gone about 8 stump lengths.
It then continued the same way with people like Symmo and Shahid out. Rohit Sharma took Farveez Maharoof for a ride of his life and the poor fellow never knew where to bowl to the Indian T20 specialist. 26 runs in one over meant DC would cross the 100 mark which looked out of sight at the 10 over juncture. They did though and did well to end up at 142. But that was not a great score even after getting rid of the dangerous Gautam “Gauti” Gambhir for next to nothing. The butcher from Nazafgarh, Virendra Sehwag and a very steady Shikhar Dhawan ensured no damage was done thereafter and saw their side home with more that 33% of the overs remaining. The notable innings came from Sehwag (naturally) who scored a near hundred and gave Symonds a good run for his money. 646464 is not a fancy phone number in rural India, but the runs scored of the six balls that he bowled. The crowd had already begun their journey back home even before people who came in late could settle down.
A loss for the home team and with 2 losses in as many matches they were just above the Punjab team of Ness Wadia (yes, I forgot her because she anyhow does not have any role to play) at number 7. That was not where the guyz wanted to be when they started. A day’s off and Shane Keith Warne was in town leading a very cheap and inexperienced Rajasthan Royals team. With one win and a loss they were in a far better position than the DC. I was in no mood to be at the stadium and therefore choose to buy myself the best seat to watch cricket for Free, at home, in front of the TV.
When the news of Venugopal Rao being dropped and DC batting first was broken, I wasn’t too excited to see young Kalyan Krishna, who I had seen bowling really well in the Deodhar Trophy about a month ago, in the team. I thought he was very inexperienced to rub shoulders with the bigwigs of world cricket. But them I am not the skipper of DC, VVS is, so his decision was more important. I got kind of a shock when Laxman himself walked in along with Adam Gilchrist. Why was Boom Boom Afridi in the team??? To play second fiddle to people like Symonds and Sharma? I couldn’t digest that as well.
Anyways, Laxman hit some pretty blows before he saw a Pathan (Not Irfan… His bro, Yousuf was this) from Baroda being given the ball by Shane Warne. Everyone in the stadium would have thought Warne’s gone mad. But it had its effects immediately. Pathan removed Gilchrist and Afridi in one over. Symmo was in again and his side was in trouble. Then Laxman had to fall… he did. Though Symmo and Rohit gave stability and runs to the DC innings, I was getting bored and wanted to sleep. Well I didn’t for the love of cricket though. And it was paid off well. Symonds came up with the fastest century in IPL and it was awesome to see him clear the fence with ease. 214 to win and DC were looking good to register their first points in the tourney.
But then the Blue Brigade of Marwaris (none of them is a marwari I guess) had other ideas. And again it was Pathan. While smith did some serious damage to the DC bowling as the opener, and also emerged the highest scorer of the innings, it was yousuf whose magic was there to be seen. And when both of them got out, it was Shane Warne, who did the real damage. No it was not with the ball this time around. With 17 off the last over needed and Afridi, Vaas and RP having finished their respective spells, Laxman chose Symonds over Ohja and Kalyan. A wise decision on paper. But Warne had other ideas. When he got strike from Pankaj Singh (remember the lanky fast bowler on Aussie Tour… Not Ishant Sharma man…) He smashed Symonds for a Four, Six and Six to finish DC. And yeah with three losses out of as many matches, it is now going to be a tough, or should I say a Very Tough road for DC. And for poor old Symmo, who is the second highest paid player in the IPL, figures of 6.5-0-101-0 in the tourney is not something he will feel good about when he goes back down under to join his team on the tour of Windies.
While the Symonds story ends here, the DC story doesn’t. They will have to play out of their skins to overcome the obstacles the three losses have created in their path to a triumph in the IPL. And for someone who compares things, I will certainly put together some interesting stats to see their record against my favorite team, the HYDERABAD Heroes. At last all I can say is one and two and three and four… Deccan Chargers don’t loose anymore.
April 26, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hey Dhimant hope Deccan Chargers pick up the momentum and get back into the League.
thanks for starting your article with One & two & three & four Deccan Chargers give us more…
more will come for sure.
lets hope for the best.
(if you choose to reply – reply on my mail id. might not get access to this blog soon).
– Sunny Khandelwal
sun_smarty@yahoo.com
April 27, 2008 at 1:49 pm
ITs realli kewl to see u sunny in ipl cheering up deccan chargers..!!As even now we ppl wondering..what went wrong with this guyz…!! IT supposed to b the best team of the tournament…But the performance is worst compare to the other teams..Y n what went wrong…!!
As for me…the batting order is the one need to be changed..!!
In first two games..Venugopal send as a opener…he doesnt do any wonder with bat..just try very hard to take singles n sum knocks…n to the shock 6 valuable overs wasted till then..n then he realise that he has to play now..he tries n to his bad luck…He ll be out of boundary istead of ball..!!
And the best test cricketer VVS will come after him and takes some stylish singles…after all test player is test player..!!
Till this journey…10 valuable overs will b losted..and 2-3 wickets will b gone…!!
NOw real players come after the interval..already pressure will be builded on them..!!They play some smashing knocks…and what else can they do..as their power utilises soo late..!!
Atlast some score will be going to see on the scoreboard..!!that too its not from opener…its from middle orders..!!
The strategy…planning…is not setting up properly..!!
The combination of great players…Yet the utilization is nill..!!
To our wonder…the teams with not soo gr8 combination…only with ranji players…performing soo kewl..!!
Still nothing is gone…try to implement the perfect planning..!!
Hope the guyz win the next matches…BEsties for the team
One two three…deccan chargers dont loose anymore..I suPPort u..!
June 3, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Tutoring says : I absolutely agree with this !