From the iSport Cricket Paddock: iSporter Issac John is a little disappointed with the way his favourite Deccan Chargers team is performing in the IPL. Read his post-match analysis of two heavy losses that DC faced this weekend.
It would’ve been fair to assume that out of the two matches DC had lined up over the weekend, they would’ve been able to put it across the Royals easily. Man to man, DC was the better team but some inept batting and odd moves by the captain just handed over a chase of 149 on a platter to the Royals. Pathan had previously also run berserk against DC on 3 separate occasions and which is why it seemed surprising that DC didn’t quite have a plan for him.
Pathan came to bat in the 7th over and yet Gilly didn’t bring on his best bowler Chaminda Vaas until the 11th over by which time, Pathan had taken away the game completely from the Chargers. Similarly, Vaas bowled only one over at the beginning of his spell when both the openers were yet to get a grip on the wicket. Both these decisions combined left DC with very little room to play with once Pathan got going.
On the batting front, despite a failure from Gilly, Chargers scrambled to a par score of 148 with Rohit Sharma scoring 49 off 35 balls. Gibbs so far has only been chipping with nifty twenties and as the tournament progresses there will be calls to seek his replacement and play both Roach and Vaas as bowlers. Overall, a match where very little went right for the Chargers.
Against MI, DC was typically DC – letting go off a great start to make things really difficult for themselves. At one point, it seemed Sachin was going to make the difference between an MI score of 150 or 170 that DC would be expected to chase. Ultimately, it was Harbhajan who scored a blinder of 49 runs in double-quick time and took the match away from DC towards the last 15 minutes of the MI batting. Later, expectedly he bowled the first over and took Gilly second ball off a lovely delivery that shaped outside the off stump with a sharp catch from Sachin completing the trick nicely.
So now the compounded problem for DC is that opposition captains have also figured out that Gilchrist has troubles forcing the pace against spinners early on. Going forward, it would be surprising to see any opposition captain opting for medium pacers against Gilly. Rohit Sharma once again played a lone hand but the writing was on the wall once Gibbs, Symonds and Gilchrist departed for a combined total of 28 runs. As the backbone of the batting order, that total should ideally be in the range of 80-100 runs. If that doesn’t happen DC will continue to find itself in a hole.
Overall, a weekend that showed off the typical DC flourish but lacked the finishing touch – something that is clearly an area of improvement that Lehmann and team will have to focus over the next week. DC’s next two games are lined up at Eden Gardens and Brabourne respectively and the results of both these tough games will go a long way in deciding DC’s fate for IPL 2010.
Lastly, overheard comments from some fans saying Gilchrist isn’t adding any value to the team. Sample his scores and strike rates- in brackets- from the first 4 matches before the 2 recent failures over this weekend. When they say public memory is short, this is perhaps what they mean.
1st Match – against KKR – 54 off 35 (154.28)
2nd Match – against CSK – 38 off 17 (223. 52)
3rd Match - against KEP – 33 off 12 (275.00)
4th Match – against DD – 24 off 14 (171.42)
Pathan came to bat in the 7th over and yet Gilly didn’t bring on his best bowler Chaminda Vaas until the 11th over by which time, Pathan had taken away the game completely from the Chargers. Similarly, Vaas bowled only one over at the beginning of his spell when both the openers were yet to get a grip on the wicket. Both these decisions combined left DC with very little room to play with once Pathan got going.
On the batting front, despite a failure from Gilly, Chargers scrambled to a par score of 148 with Rohit Sharma scoring 49 off 35 balls. Gibbs so far has only been chipping with nifty twenties and as the tournament progresses there will be calls to seek his replacement and play both Roach and Vaas as bowlers. Overall, a match where very little went right for the Chargers.
Against MI, DC was typically DC – letting go off a great start to make things really difficult for themselves. At one point, it seemed Sachin was going to make the difference between an MI score of 150 or 170 that DC would be expected to chase. Ultimately, it was Harbhajan who scored a blinder of 49 runs in double-quick time and took the match away from DC towards the last 15 minutes of the MI batting. Later, expectedly he bowled the first over and took Gilly second ball off a lovely delivery that shaped outside the off stump with a sharp catch from Sachin completing the trick nicely.
So now the compounded problem for DC is that opposition captains have also figured out that Gilchrist has troubles forcing the pace against spinners early on. Going forward, it would be surprising to see any opposition captain opting for medium pacers against Gilly. Rohit Sharma once again played a lone hand but the writing was on the wall once Gibbs, Symonds and Gilchrist departed for a combined total of 28 runs. As the backbone of the batting order, that total should ideally be in the range of 80-100 runs. If that doesn’t happen DC will continue to find itself in a hole.
Overall, a weekend that showed off the typical DC flourish but lacked the finishing touch – something that is clearly an area of improvement that Lehmann and team will have to focus over the next week. DC’s next two games are lined up at Eden Gardens and Brabourne respectively and the results of both these tough games will go a long way in deciding DC’s fate for IPL 2010.
Lastly, overheard comments from some fans saying Gilchrist isn’t adding any value to the team. Sample his scores and strike rates- in brackets- from the first 4 matches before the 2 recent failures over this weekend. When they say public memory is short, this is perhaps what they mean.
1st Match – against KKR – 54 off 35 (154.28)
2nd Match – against CSK – 38 off 17 (223. 52)
3rd Match - against KEP – 33 off 12 (275.00)
4th Match – against DD – 24 off 14 (171.42)
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