The Hindu : Sport : Chance for Deccan Chargers to arrest the free-fall

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Chance for Deccan Chargers to arrest the free-fall

Mumbai Indians would be keen to bounce back

— Photo: AFP

KEY MAN: Herschelle Gibbs seems to be a perfect foil for Adam Gilchrist and on their start would depend the chances of Deccan Chargers.

Centurion: Tumbling off the top slot after three successive defeats, Adam Gilchrist’s Deccan Chargers will hope to arrest the free-fall when it takes on revenge-thirsty Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.

Under Gilchrist, the Chargers looked clearly the most high-flying outfit this year with four wins on the row, including a 12-run win over the Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians in the first leg that placed it right at the top of the table in the early stage.

Then subsequently nothing went right for the Hyderabad outfit which crashed to one defeat after another to move down the ladder.

Defeats against Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings saw it slip to fourth place.

Gilchrist would now have to go into Wednesday’s match believing he knows what it takes to beat the Mumbai side.

The job, however, would not be easy since Tendulkar himself is not really amused by the yo-yo form of his side.

No momentum

The Mumbai Indians have not gathered any momentum in the tournament yet and for it, every win has invariably been followed by a defeat, pushing the side to sixth place with three wins from seven outings.

Of the three defeats so far, resting heavy on Tendulkar’s shoulder would be the most recent one that came against Royal Challengers Bangalore, not really the mightiest of sides in the tournament.

Losing the zing

Mumbai’s sharp looking bowling unit overnight lost its zing and sting against Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa — both of whom were hitherto off-colour — and the result was a thumping nine-wicket defeat with 11 balls to spare.

In case the desire to bounce back is not a motivation enough, Mumbai Indians would look forward to settle scores.

Sideshow

An interesting sideshow of the match would pit Twenty20 cricket’s two most exciting opening pairs against each other.

As was on display throughout the tournament, veterans Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya thrive in each other’s company and have spoilt the figures of many a bowler while setting the tone for the match.

Similarly, Gilchrist seemed to have found a perfect foil in Herschelle Gibbs and the duo often took off in such a ferocious pace that their rivals were left to do the catching-up job for the rest of the match.

Mumbai would expect J.P. Duminy to maintain his good run in the middle and seek those lusty blows from Abhishek Nayar.

Deccan would hope Rohit Sharma to sizzle against some of his Ranji teammates in the Mumbai side. — PTI

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