Cape Town, April 20 (Inditop) Deccan Chargers, who finished at the bottom of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL), began the second edition with a bang, scoring an emphatic eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the fourth match of the Twenty2O league at the Newlands here Sunday.
It was an all-round show by the Deccan Chargers, who excelled in all the three departments of the game. The bowlers, Rudra Pratap Singh (4-22) and Fidel Edwards, supported by some superb fielding, bowled a tight line and length to restrict Knight Riders for a paltry 101 in 19.4 overs.
While chasing, comeback man Herschelle Gibbs scored an unbeaten 43 off 26 balls and Rohit Sharma scored a stoke-filled 36 not out to reach the target in 13.1 overs.
Opting to bat under wet conditions back fired for Knight Riders’ newly appointed captain Brendon McCullum, as his batsmen failed to get the measure of the track and found it difficult to play their shots against new ball bowlers Edwards and Rudra Pratap.
Edwards was lighting fast and miser and gave away just six runs from his four overs, which was the best economy rate by any bowler in an IPL match.
The West Indies paceman’s spell tied down the Knight Riders batsmen that helped Man of the Match Rudra Pratap pick up the wickets. Pragyan Ojha and Scot Styris also got two wickets each.
Earlier, nothing went right for Knight Riders from the start. Lot depended on McCullum to give them an explosive start, the way he gave the Shah Rukh Khan owned team last year.
But the Kiwi batsman could manage only one and went out tamely edging Rudra Pratap’s leg-side delivery to Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Glchrist.
Chris Gayle (10) tried to break the shackles with his couple of big shots but a rash stroke off Rudra Pratap cut short his stay.
Stripped of captaincy, Sourav Ganguly (1) found it tough and his short stay at the crease was nothing less than uncomfortable. Debutant Harmmeet Singh removed the former Indian skipper, who tried to make some room but edged to V.V.S. Laxman at first slip.
Brad Hodge played a patient 33 to drag the Knight Riders past the 100-run mark.
For Deccan Chargers, it was just the target they could have wished for to start their campaign and the stage was set for Gibbs, who was coming back from alcohol rehabilitation, to prove his calls again.
The South African, playing in front of his home crowd, treated the Knight Riders’ bowlers with disdain and made it look easy. His 26-ball stay was studded with five fours and a huge six.
rounak