Ken Borland

David Hussey and Praveen Kumar proved their worth as bowlers in the shortest version of the game as they led the Punjab Kings XI to a 25-run victory over the Deccan Chargers in their Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120508/Hussey_Praveen_prove_their_worth

Praveen takes swing bowling to new artistic levels and was rewarded with outstanding figures of 2-15 in four overs as the Chargers, chasing 171 for victory, struggled to 145 for eight.

Hussey, who has proven himself an independent thinker as captain standing in for the injured Adam Gilchrist, brought himself on to bowl the 11th over and changed the course of the match as he removed fellow Australians Daniel Harris (30) and powerful hitter Cameron White (8) and conceded just two runs in his only over.

Praveen made a top-class start with the new ball, conceding just six runs in two overs and claiming a vital wicket in Shikhar Dhawan (8), who edged a ball that nipped away to a wide slip.

Parthiv Patel came in and hit a four and a six off Parvinder Awana, but then picked the wrong ball to swish to leg and was bowled for 17.

Harris showed better selection in his 30 off 29 balls, notching two fours and a six, but he then failed to read off-spinner Hussey and sliced a delivery that went straight on to backward point.

White, whose recent form has given him prominent space in the newspapers, then heaved Hussey to cow corner, where another Aussie, Shaun Marsh, had plenty of time to contemplate the steepler before taking the catch.

Unfortunate Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara (4) will be sorry he has such tremendous skill as he then managed to get an edge to an outrageous delivery from Praveen that would have beaten most batsmen all ends up. It swung sharply across the left-hander, hitting the bat near the shoulder and wicketkeeper Nitin Saini clung on to a great catch high to his left.

The Chargers were 75 for five after 12 overs and the Kings XI had no pity for Deccan as they limited them to 70 runs in the last eight overs and claimed three more wickets.

The lower-order was ill-equipped to tackle a required run-rate of 12 an over, unless the Kings XI suffered an extraodinary implosion in the field.

But the Punjab bowlers remained impressive till the end and the visitors were slick in the field as well. The Chargers were grateful for some late defiance from Akshath Reddy (24) and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (19) otherwise they probably would have suffered the ignominy of being bowled out inside 20 overs.

The Kings XI moved up to fifth in the IPL log and stated their playoff ambitions in no uncertain terms, with Awana (4-0-27-2) and the canny Azhar Mahmood (4-0-31-0) the other bowlers to shine.

BOLD INNINGS

Young Mandeep Singh had earlier come to the fore as he steered the Punjab Kings XI to 170 for five.

Newspapers the length of India will be raving about the 20-year-old Mandeep, who played a great hand on a tricky pitch, scoring 75 off 48 balls, with eight fours and three sixes.

Mandeep, one of the new wave of young Indian batsmen waiting to succeed the great current generation, was ruthless against anything a touch short and also played some beautiful drives as he gave the Kings XI a fine start after they were sent in to bat.

With Marsh scoring 22, Punjab had reached 86 for two at the halfway mark and lost their way a bit in the second half of their innings.

Part-time off-spinner Dhawan sent Marsh on his way in the seventh over as the Australian left-hander didn’t read the arm-ball, and one could only pity Saini (2), who received a poor lbw decision from umpire Kumar Dharmasena as he missed a googly from paceman Ashish Reddy.

Ashish bowls his slower ball out of the back of the hand, but unfortunately tends to overdo the delivery and was expensive as a result, conceding 39 runs in his four overs.

Captain Hussey scored a handy 16 before he gave a catch to long-off from the bowling of Veer Pratap Singh, but Mandeep continued with his adventurous, bold innings until the 16th over, when he got a bit excited lining up Ashish, missed a slower ball and was bowled.

As the end of innings neared, South Africans David Miller and Rusty Theron took centre stage.

Pietermaritzburg-raised Miller hit the ball high and handsome as he finished the innings with 28 not out off 18 balls, allowing Punjab to at least set Deccan a stiff target.

The batsmen had an uphill task scoring runs against Theron at the death, however, as the seamer kept them guessing with his array of variations accurately delivered.

Theron’s last two overs cost just 12 runs, leaving him with final figures of 4-0-29-0.

The loss of the dangerous Azhar, who had gone untroubled to 14 off nine balls, was another reason why Punjab missed out somewhat in the closing overs. The Pakistan all-rounder was run out after slick work by Ashish and bowler Theron, but the Chargers’ fielding was once again generally poor and something they desperately need to work on.

Off-spinner Jhunjhunwala (2-0-12-0) bowled tidily up front, but the Chargers were put on the back foot almost immediately as Veer conceded 18 runs in the second over.

Medium-pacer Harris also bowled a tight line in conceding just 15 runs in his two overs in the second half of the innings.

AB de Villiers played one of the greatest Indian Premier League innings ever seen as his sensational onslaught took the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a five-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers and back to the brink of the playoff places at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120506/AB_snatches_most_amazing_win

The Challengers, chasing 182 for victory, were struggling to get on top of the persistent Chargers bowlers and they went into the last five overs needing 69 runs.

They almost immediately lost the top-scorer, Tillakaratne Dilshan, for a fantastic 71 off 54 balls, but De Villiers went on to steal the show with an astonishing innings of 47 not out off just 17 balls, with five fours and three sixes.

Whatever the reputation of T20 cricket, the onslaught De Villiers unleashed on countryman Dale Steyn in the 18th over was some of the best cricket one can ever hope to see.

To the man in the street, Steyn, who had earlier bowled a magnificent maiden over to Chris Gayle, is the best fast bowler in the world, and De Villiers is rapidly earning a reputation as the number one batsman.

Steyn’s bowling was accurate, putting every ball pretty much where he wanted to, but De Villiers was always a step ahead. The first ball of the over was short and imperiously pulled for six, the second delivery was an excellent yorker which De Villiers squeezed through square-leg for two runs.

De Villiers then clubbed a slower ball through wide mid-on for four, before playing the most extraordinary shot of them all, backing away and lifting another 146km/h yorker over extra cover for six. The South African limited-overs captain then stepped outside off stump and paddled another four, before keeping the strike as he calmy steered a lifter to third man.

Anand Rajan was the other bowler to suffer at the hands of De Villiers’s brilliance as he hit him for four, four and six off the first three balls of what turned out to be the final over, Bangalore winning with seven balls to spare.

The Challengers’ other big gun, Chris Gayle, was content to play second fiddle to Dilshan as he scored 26 off 22 balls in a first-wicket stand of 91 off just 64 balls.

Rajan gained the scalp of Gayle, bowling him the ball after the left-hander had launched him for a massive six out of the ground, and the match seemed to have turned in the favour of the visitors when leg-spinner Amit Mishra took two wickets in the 14th over.

The first was down to the brilliance of Steyn in the field as he leapt to pluck Virat Kohli’s sweetly-struck drive out of the sky at wide long-off and Steyn contributed to the second wicket as well when he caught Asad Pathan for four.

Dilshan, who had gone fluently to his half-century off just 29 balls, the bowlers having no answer to his commanding strokeplay, suddenly seemed to have doubts as he scored just 21 runs off his next 25 balls. He hit Veer Pratap Singh for four through square-leg but then missed the next ball aiming for the same place and was bowled.

Mayank Agarwal then came in and scored a priceless 18 off six balls, including a four and two sixes, before he missed a slog-sweep at Ashish Reddy and was given out lbw.

But then De Villiers took over and produced the most extraordinary and breathtaking of match-winning innings.

PAPER-THIN ATTACK

Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan and Cameron White were once again in fine form as they led the Deccan Chargers to 181 for two.

Opener Dhawan and White added 82 in 44 balls to boost the Chargers after a solid but unspectacular start on a good pitch and a small field in Bangalore.

White was spectacular as he plundered 45 off 24 balls, with three sixes, before skying a pull off Prasanth Parameswaran and being caught by the bowler in the final over.

Dhawan scored an elegant, fluent 73 not out off 52 balls, with 10 fours and a six. This is his third half-century of the season, but his highest score.

The big news of the day in terms of team selection was that Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori had dropped himself in favour of the more penetrative Muttiah Muralitharan and, even though the great Sri Lankan did not take a wicket, he was the home side’s best bowler, conceding just 18 runs in his four overs.

Despite the presence of international stars such as Muralitharan and Zaheer Khan, the Bangalore attack still looked paper thin with Parameswaran taking the only wicket to fall to a bowler as late as the final over.

Australian Daniel Harris, brought into the team as an opening batsman, scored a powerful 47 off 41 balls as he and Dhawan made a strong start, adding 86 for the first wicket off 71 balls.

The partnership was ended by a run out as Harris, charging off for a silly run, was beaten back to the bowler’s end as Kohli swooped wonderfully in the covers.

That was in the 12th over and White settled in well before hitting the ball hard and straight in his final onslaught.

Parameswaran’s last three overs cost 39 runs and Abhimanyu Mithun was hit for 6,4,4 by White as the 17th over ended disastrously for Bangalore. The last five overs of the innings brought 64 runs as the Challengers bowlers were hit silly.

Kumar Sangakkara hit a six and a four in the three balls he faced in the final over.

Left-arm paceman Zaheer was the next best of the Bangalore bowlers, conceding 32 runs in his four overs.

The Deccan Chargers suffered another blow as the Kolkata Knight Riders beat them by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Sunday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1351481

It was a struggle for the Knight Riders, however, as they needed 19 overs to chase down their mediocre target of 127.

It was mainly thanks to their bowlers and fielders, who operated as a slick unit in restricting the Deccan Chargers to 126 for seven, that the Kolkata Knight Riders claimed victory.

The Chargers, having been sent in to bat after an hour-long rain delay, made a bright enough start as they reached 35 without loss after five overs. But they then seemed to bat well within themselves and the whole innings came to a near standstill as the Kolkata bowlers and fielders tightened their strangulating grip.

The Knight Riders bowling system worked a charm with all-rounders Yusuf Pathan (2-0-19-0) and Jacques Kallis (2-0-16-0) getting their combined share of overs out the way early. Brett Lee (4-0-15-1) bowled tightly up front and then brilliantly at the death, while spinner Sunil Narine (4-0-26-2) was just an absolute handful throughout. Medium-pacers Lakshmipathy Balaji (4-0-22-2) and Rajat Bhatia (4-0-26-1) bossed the non-powerplay overs.

Balaji showed that he is no mug with the ball as he cleaned up the great Kumar Sangakkara, bowling him middle stump for 12, but Shikhar Dhawan made a brisk start as he and Parthiv Patel added 44 in 5.4 overs for the second wicket.

Parthiv was run out for 23 by a top-class piece of boundary fielding by Kallis, while Dhawan lost momentum and completed a battling half-century before he pulled a full toss from Bhatia straight to cow-corner to be out for 50 off 50 balls.

Dhawan’s dismissal meant the Chargers had slipped to 102 for four after 16 overs and they managed to add just 24 more runs in the last four overs, including just a four and a six. In fact, the whole innings featured just nine fours and two sixes.

VERBAL JOUSTING

JP Duminy ensured that Deccan weren’t bowled out within the 20 overs as he finished on 16 not out off 15 balls, while Dale Steyn scored seven, that included a lovely straight six off Narine off the first ball of the final over.

The Barabati Stadium pitch is clearly not the easiest to bat on and, with Steyn, the most lethal fast bowler in the world, taking the new ball, the Chargers wanted early wickets to have a chance.

New Zealander Brendon McCullum is always a threat and Steyn claimed his wicket after he had scored 10, trapping him lbw with a slower ball that kept low.

Fellow opener Gautam Gambhir made a fluent 30 before his innings had a sad end as he lamely drove seamer Anand Rajan straight to mid-off.

Leggie Amit Mishra accounted for Maninder Bisla (10), bowling him with a beautiful top-spinner and there was more disappointment for the misfiring Yusuf Pathan as he hit impressive slow left-armer Ankit Sharma (4-0-19-1) for a massive six but then missed a swipe at the next delivery and was bowled.

Kallis, however, played an important innings for the Knight Riders, scoring a composed 23 at a run-a-ball to lift them from 72 for four.

Steyn, the best of the Deccan bowlers with 2-24, won the personal battle with countryman Kallis as he had him caught behind with a fine delivery in the 17th over, and there were a few anxious moments thereafter for the Knight Riders as Manoj Tiwary allowed the situation to get to him.

Tiwary was nearly run out as he wandered down the pitch to engage in some verbal jousting with Steyn, and the choice of some of his strokes left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, he finished the job with his 30 not out as the Knight Riders joined the other leaders on eight points.