Incredible Ishant destroys Tuskers

A fiery spell by Ishant Sharma gave the Deccan Chargers a much-required lifeline in the IPL, almost single-handedly taking the Hyderabad side from a seemingly losing position to a highly delightful win over Kochi Tuskers Kerala at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Wednesday. 

Taking a cue from the way the rival bowlers had spelt gloom on his side earlier in the day, the lanky fast bowlers was simply irresistible as he ran through the Tuskers top-order from wherein the local side found no way to retrieve itself. 

Sharma finished with figures of five for 12 while Steyn returned with a three wicket haul costing him only 16 runs. 

The target of 130 was something like Mount Everest to climb for KTK all of a sudden — or precisely within the first two overs. And, undoubtedly, what pushed the local side up against the wall was the spell from the hitherto struggling Sharma who found his wonted form at the nick of time by claiming three wickets off his first over — he had Parthiv Patel caught by Sangakkara, clean bowled Raiphy Vicent Gomez the next ball and then breached Brad Hodge's defence in the fifth ball of the brilliant over. 

Brendon McCullum had been dismissed by Dale Steyn in the first over — the Kiwi was caught behind after fishing out to an outgoing delivery. 

Then, Sharma neatly removed Kedar Jadha, trapping the batsman plumb in front with a delivery which straightened, and then completed his five-wicket haul capturing the prized wicket of Mahela Jayawardene off the last ball of his second over — the Sri Lankan picking up an edge off a climbing delivery and guiding the ball to the gloves of Sangakkara behind.

At 11 for six, it was all but over, and all that KTK could get was to get a paltry 74, prolonging the inevitable to lose by a huge 55-run margin and 3.3 overs remaining.

A good day for quicks

It was the seamers who had helped KTK to restrict the Hyderabad side to 129 for seven earlier in the day. 

Jayawardene was quite specific that the wicket was going to be a competitive one as he won the toss and elected to field. And his hopes were again proved right as R.P. Singh gave KTK the much sought-after breakthrough reducing the Chargers to 10-2 within the first three overs. 

Sreesanth, returning to the side, provided admirable support to Singh by bowling a tight spell at the other end. And when Vinay Kumar, who replaced the Kerala bowler after two overs, sent back Bharat Chipli after the openers Sunny Sohal and Shikhar Dhawan had returned, KTK was really on top with its rival reeling at 20 for three. 

Sangakkara was lucky that a Sreesanth delivery that had the timber rattling proved to be a ‘no ball'. And the Sri Lankan made this bit of good luck count as he helped his side to recover from the early damage. 

Sangakkara was all grace as he waited before picking up the rival bowlers and then launched the counter-attack with Cameron White lending him superb support. The duo, with Sangakkara turning aggressive, took the fight back to the rival camp as they put on an invaluable 90-run partnership for the fourth wicket before White, who was shaping well, fell to Vinay Kumar, caught by Jayawardene for a fine knock of 31. 

Tragedy struck the Chargers again the very next ball when Sangakkara too departed, caught behind by Patel, after having made a brilliant 65 off just 47 deliveries. 

The Hyderabad side could only add 19 more runs in its last three overs, losing two more wickets in the process. 

There was cheer in the KTK camp but that in the end came too early as the local side was simply blown away by that terrific opening spell from Ishant Sharma. 

No prizes for guessing who won the Man of the Match award. 

Deccan Chargers: S. Sohal lbw R.P. Singh 1 (4b), S. Dhawan c Gomez b R.P. Singh 4 (9b), B. Chipli c Sreesanth b Vinay Kumar 4 (10b), K. Sangakkara c Parthiv Patel b Vinay Kumar 65 (47 b, 10x4), C. White c Jayawardene b Vinay Kumar 31 (34b, 1x6, 2x4), D. Christian b Perera 9 (11b), Ravi Teja (not out) 8 (5b, 1x4), Amit Mishra (run out) 0 (1b), Manpreet Gony (not out) 0 (1b), Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-3, nb-2) 7, Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs) 129. 

Fall of wickets: 1-3. 2-6, 3-20, 4-110, 5-110, 6-127, 7-127. 

Kochi Tuskers Kerala bowling: R.P. Singh 4-0-21-2, Sreesanth 4-1-22-0, Vinay Kumar 4-0-25-3, Perera 4-0-30-1, Gomez 1-0-4-0, Jadea 3-0-25-0. 

Kochi Tuskers Kerala: B. McCullum c Sangakkara b Steyn 0 (4b), M. Jayawardene c Sangakkara b Ishant 4 (8b, 1x4); P. Patel c Sangakkara b Ishant 0 (3b); R. Gomez b Ishant 0 (1b); B. Hodge b Ishant 0 (2b), K. Jadhav lbw b Ishant 0 (2b), R. Jadeja c Christian b Mishra 23 (35b, 2x4); T. Perera c White b Gony 22 (23b, 4x4); Vinay b Steyn 18 (19b, 2x4); S. Sreesanth (not out) 0 (1b); R.P. Singh b Steyn 0 (1b); Extras (lb-3, w-4): 7; Total (in 16.3 overs): 74. 

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-2, 5-6, 6-11, 7-47, 8-73, 9-74. 

Deccan Chargers bowling: Steyn 3.3-1-16-3, Ishant 3-0-12-5, Christian 3-0-12-0, Gony 3-0-19-1, Mishra 4-0-12-1. 

Man of the Match: Ishant Sharma.