15 March,2010 02:56 AM IST | | Agencies
Defending champions Deccan Chargers roared to a comfortable 31-run victory against the Chennai Super Kings for their first win in two matches of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament on Sunday.
After posting a huge total of 190 for four in 20 overs, the Chargers pegged the Super Kings for a fine victory following their shock defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders Friday.
The Super Kings contributed to their own downfall, first with some ordinary bowling at the death and then shot selection while chasing the total.
A touch of haste born out of anxiety saw Super Kings losing wickets early in their chase and the Chargers looked well on way to a comfortable victory.
Opener Murali Vijay, attempting a big hit, was bowled and in the same over, Suresh Raina departed after slamming Vaas for a six.
In the next over, Hayden, who looked in ominous touch, was caught in the deep attempting a big hit off Vaas and then the Super Kings lost Subramaniam Badrinath, who holed out in the deep to present Ojha a wicket in his very first over.
The Super Kings came up with a brief recovery as Dhoni and debutant Justin Kemp got stuck into the Chargers' bowling. However, Kemp, after having slammed Ojha for a six, rushed out to be stumped and the Super Kings were 70 for five after 10 overs.
But with the asking rate mounting, Dhoni chanced his arms once too often and fell to Symonds, bowling his first over and the 15th of the innings. The skipper's dismissal virtually signaled the end of Super Kings challenge despite some big hits by Morkel.
The home team thereafter lost wickets at regular intervals as the Chargers cantered to victory, leaving Morkel unbeaten on 42.
Earlier in the day, the Super Kings were at the receiving end with Gilchrist (38), followed by Gibbs (45) and Symonds (50) setting the pace with some big hitting. Consequently, the runs came in a torrent and despite the back-to-back loss of Gilchrist and V.V.S. Laxman in the same over, the Chargers still had the momentum.
While Gilchrist was at his best, slamming sixes and fours en route to completing 1,000 runs in IPL, it was the Gibbs-Symonds partnership of 95 runs in quick time that took the Chargers to a challenging total.
The Super Kings bowling was rather disappointing as barring off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and to a lesser extent Muttiah Muralitharan, none looked penetrative.
After a quiet start, both Gibbs and Symonds opened up to punish the Super Kings bowlers who looked rather clueless in dealing with the onslaught.
Yet, when Gibbs and Symonds departed following inspirational fielding leading to their run outs, the Super Kings were very much in the game, but seamer Sudeep Tyagi, who had conceded 18 runs in his only over at the start of the innings, was brought on for the final over and he went for 22 runs as Rohit Sharma helped himself.
Worse still, Tyagi was taken off after delivering his second no-ball of the over and Justin Kemp completed the proceedings.
