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Chargers should take charge

A. Joseph Antony

Kings XI, without its Antipodeans, looks a depleted side

— Photo: H. Satish

AGGRESSIVE DUO: Batsmen of the calibre of Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi, seen at a practice session on Wednesday, should ensure that Deccan Chargers does not miss the services of the belligerent Andrew Symonds.

HYDERABAD: If a play is known by its cast, the stars taking the stage for the Deccan Chargers will again bring in the crowds when it faces Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium on Thursday.

Billed as the finest act even before the extravaganza got under way, the Hyderabad troupe fumbled with its lines in the first three appearances. Fickle as fans can be, the cheers turned to jeers. After that demeaning defeat to Delhi Daredevils, hooligans among the host supporters hurled water bottles, aiming one such projectile even at the cheerleaders, who had until then, entertained them.

Virtuoso performance

One virtuoso performance at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai changed all that. Adam Gilchrist, adept at dismantling attacks, showed that even if his vigil behind the stumps may have waned, his reflexes before them had lost none of their sheen, amply illustrated by the 10 sixes with which he studded that explosive century.

While this bowling decimator’s current form will be cause for much cheer in the Chargers’ camp, that unbeaten 109 against the Mumbai Indians would have only underscored his class.

Sans Andrew Symonds, who has returned home for national duty, another swashbuckler will step in, quite capable of playing the perfect foil for Gilchrist. If that 111-ball 175 he cracked in the Johannesburg one-dayer to overhaul Australia’s mammoth 434 is anything to go by, Herschelle Herman Gibbs should be raring to celebrate his arrival with a knock as cavalier or Caribbean in content.

Even if it’s still early to say Chargers’ low-profile captain V.V.S. Laxman has already outdone three of the five icons in the league with his unbeaten 36 against the Mumbai Indians.

The wristy wizard’s opening the innings with Gilchrist could be an indication of his growing composure in this condensed form of the game.

The wait for some magic from his willow will certainly be worth the while.

The Afridi factor

If Shahid Afridi hasn’t turned volatile with the bat thus far, his bowling has made up for it. His wrist spin should complement the wiles of Chaminda Vaas, the restrictive craft of Pragyan Ojha or the penetrative capabilities of R.P. Singh on the bowling front.

With the departure of Australians Brett Lee and Simon Katich and New Zealander Kylie Mills, Kings XI Punjab will look up to the triumvirate of Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to shore up its batting.

Each of them possesses the wherewithal to turn a match around.

Shorn of its imports, the Mohali side nonetheless wears a depleted look and will need to summon all its resources to take on the host, who on the face of it, should call the shots on home turf.

The teams (from): Deccan Chargers: V.V.S. Laxman (captain), Adam Gilchrist (wicket-keeper), Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Chaminda Vaas, Scott Styris, R.P. Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sanjay Bangar, Arjun Yadav, D. Kalyanakrishna, Pragyan Ojha, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, D. Ravi Teja, Sarveesh Kumar, Venugopala Rao, P. Vijay Kumar.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara (wicket-keeper), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, S. Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Luke Pomersbach, Ajitesh Argal, Pankaj Dharmani, Rishi Dhawan, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Sahil Kukreja, Wilkin Mota, Nitin Saini, V.R.V. Singh, Sunny Sohal, Tanmay Srivastav.

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