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Mumbai Indians posts 178

V.V. Subrahmanyam

— Photo: PTI

sweet strike: Mumbai Indians’ captain Sachin Tendulkar returns after being dismissed.

HYDERABAD: Adam Gilchrist’s gamble of putting Mumbai Indians in to bat paid handsome dividends as the bowlers, particularly the spinners Y. Venugopala Rao and Shahid Afridi, responded in style.

Deccan Chargers was able to restrict Mumbai Indians to 178 for seven in 20 overs on a perfect batting wicket in the DLF-Indian Premier League at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

Jayasuriya fires

No doubt, when Sanath Jayasuriya (36, 6x4, 2x6) was on fire at the start including two superbly struck sixes- one off Vijaykumar over mid-wicket and another a pull stroke off left-arm pacer Nuwan Zoysa, Gilchrist may have pondered his decision for a while.

But, to his captain’s delight, Venugopala, who was brought on in the third over, fought back well after being swept twice by Jayasuriya only to lure him into a third one and see the star striker give the deep square-leg a simple catch.

This dismissal in the third over saw Deccan Chargers come back strongly. For, new batsman Dominic Thornely, nicknamed ‘Dominator’ back home in Australia, never lived up to that tag. He struggled against the spinners and this put pressure even on Sachin Tendulkar.

Though the maestro delighted the crowd with two extravagant flicks to the fence off R.P. Singh, he was never really at his dominating best.

And not surprisingly, leg-spinner Afridi sent back Sachinwhen he mistimed a shot and was caught in the deep. In the same over, Afridi trapped Thornely lbw to see Mumbai at 78 for three in 10 overs.

Abhishek comes good

Then, southpaw Abhishek Nayar (38, 3x4, 2x6) took charge with some authentic strokes — two huge sixes off Afridi and R.P. Singh being the pick.

In the company of the more elegant Dwayne Bravo (30, 17b, 2x4, 2x6), who earlier whipped Venugopala Rao for a beautiful six over mid-wicket and swung R.P. Singh for another one, Nayar ensured that Mumbai put up a challenging total in the end thanks to the 30-ball 54-run stand with Bravo.

At one stage Mumbai was a modest 114 for four in 15 overs. But once again, the bowling at the death was disappointing as Chargers conceded 64 runs in the last five overs despite R.P. Singh finishing with a three-wicket haul.

The scores:

Mumbai Indians: S. Jayasuriya c R.P. Singh b Venugopala 36, S. Tendulkar c Silva b Afridi 23, D. Thornely lbw b Afridi 8, A. Nayar c Sharma b R.P. Singh 38, R. Uthappa c Afridi b Venugopala 7, D. Bravo b R.P. Singh 30, P. Shah b R.P. Singh 10, Y. Takawale (not out) 5, R. Raje (not out) 1; Extras (lb-11, w-7, nb-2): 20. Total: (for 7 wkts in 20 overs): 178.

Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-72, 3-72, 4-96, 5-150, 6-156, 7-175.

Deccan Chargers bowling: Vijaykumar 2-0-24-0, Zoysa 3-0-37-0, Venugopala 3-0-25-2, R.P. Singh 4-0-35-3, Afridi 4-0-23-2, Ojha 4-0-23-0.

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