Chennai triumph despite Sohal’s blistering knock

Deccan Chargers' Sohal ends up on the losing side after scoring 56 off 30 balls

Chennai triumph despite Sohal's blistering knock

Deccan Chargers' Sohal ends up on the losing side after scoring 56 off 30 balls

A breathtaking knock (56 off 30 balls) from Sunny Sohal almost meant Deccan Chargers tamed the mighty Chennai Super Kings in their own backyard yesterday.

Pursuing a record run-chase of 166, against a team that had lost only seven of their last eight home fixtures, and had never lost while defending a target here at MA Chidambaram Stadium since the first week of the last season, Deccan had to produce something magical.

Deccan Chargers' Sunny Sohal plays a shot during the IPL match
against Chennai Super Kings yesterday.
PIC/AFP

In the end, it was the contrasting effort in the last five overs that separated the sides. While Deccan stumbled from 118-3 after 15 overs to 146-8, Chennai's batsmen pummeled 69 in their last five overs - lifting the side from 96-2 to 165-5.

Albie Morkel was adjudged Man of the Match for his all-round effort of 19 runs off just 6 balls, and a three-wicket haul that included the crucial scalps of Cameron White and JP Duminy.

Sohal, 23, stayed on the back-foot, moved miles outside leg stump which forced bowlers to dart the ball into his feet, reached out to wide balls, and even got down on one knee to manufacture a shot that'd make the front page of the Cricket Book of the 21st century.

Of the 56 runs he scored, 42 were towards fine-leg and third-man. He treated Albie Morkel and Doug Bollinger like club bowlers, stunned R Ashwin with a crisp strike over long-on, and negated Suraj Randiv's turn by standing a few metres outside the crease.

Innovative
His innovative strokeplay powered Deccan Chargers to 71-1 after seven overs, but the middle and lower order suffered just like other visitors do when the heat rises in Chennai.

The last ball of the seventh over saw Sohal finally get dismissed while playing a reverse sweep off Shadab Jakati. It appeared he had done the damage - but it wasn't to be.

Earlier, in a calculated approach, Chennai, who had won all their three previous home fixtures this season after batting first, consumed 92 balls to get to the 100-run mark, but aggregated over 13 runs per over in the last five to finish the innings on a strong 165.

Super Hussey
The left-handed duo of Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina provided the platform with a 60-run stand, while Morkel and skipper MS Dhoni struck some mighty sixes towards the end.u00a0

Pragyan Ojha, who hasn't been a consistent fixture in the Deccan XI this season, bowled a brilliant final over, conceding only four runs, and removing Dhoni, just few balls after Morkel's run-out. The left-armer finished with a tally of 3-26. Ojha foxed Murali Vijay in the fourth over with a quickish arm ball.