Deccan Chargers crush Rajasthan by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Rajasthan Royals v Deccan Chargers
Player:	DR Smith, A Symonds, RG Sharma, WPUJC Vaas, SA Asnodkar
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009

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DateLine: 11th May 2009

 

Deccan Chargers, riding on fireworks from Dwayne Smith with the bat and some fine bowling from Chaminda Vaas and Rohit Sharma, score a facile 53-run win over Rajasthan Royals to keep themselves very much in the race for a semi-final spot.

 

Chasing 167 for a win, which came thanks to some fiery willow work by Smith, were pegged back right from ball one of their innings as Vaas, playing his very first game of the tournament, trapped Graeme Smith in front. The veteran Sri Lankan left-arm seamer got down to business like he was never out of it, sending down four fine overs to give away only 19 runs

 

But suddenly, the bowling success story for the Chargers is Rohit Sharma. The part-time off-spinner has claimed nine wickets off seven overs at the cost of 30 runs. On Monday too, he bowled his three overs to claim three wickets for 12 runs, and Rajasthan were decimated.

 

Worse than the loss for Rajasthan was that their skipper Shane Warne may have done some damage to his hamstring and may be out of action for around ten days.

 

Not one of the batsmen apart from little Swapnil Asnodkar had anything to offer in terms of runs. Adam Gilchrist used his bowlers masterfully, RP Singh, Andrew Symonds, Pragyan Ojha and Sharma doing their bit.

 

Asnodkar was one of the biggest success stories of the first IPL, but this time around he has struggled. However, he tried his level best to make things happen for Rajasthan, but had very little in terms of support. Asnodkar scored 44 off 39 deliveries with six boundaries and a six, before he fell to a horrible mix-up with Ravindra Jadeja.

 

During the Deccan innings, things looked to be pretty much in Rajasthan’s control till Smith and Vaas got together. Vaas seemed to have a sobering effect on the West Indian and the two together slowly but surely began to build the momentum.

 

Vaas left in the quest for quick runs but Smith found enough support from Venugopal Rao and Ravi Teja to get the Chargers to what would be a formidable score.

 

Smith’s 47 came off 32 deliveries with four leg-side sixes including an incredible flick, which flew all of 90 metres.

 

Shane Warne has ideas which seem to be completely different from most captains. He played Munaf Patel as a frontline bowler, but used him only for one over as he opted to go with the slow stuff, largely from Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja. It worked like magic for a while, since Pathan first snared Adam Gilchrist, while Jadeja took care of the dangerous duo of Rohit Sharma and then Andrew Symonds, just when the latter was beginning to look threatening.

 

But all of those plans, including Warne’s own spell, came under the stick when Smith started swinging, and what at one stage looked like an average total ended up being a match-winning one.

 

Earlier, T Suman made good work of his opening slot once again, giving the Chargers some vital runs up top after Gilchrist went early.