Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians

The weather was bright & sunny, & Gilly won the toss for DCH & elected to bat. The outfield looked dry & electric & batting looked the most obvious option.

DCH as expected started with Gilly & Gibbs & were off to a flier, with 50 coming off just 5.3 overs, with all wickets intact & Gilly looking dangerous. However, he nicked one behind off Bravo & the first wicket was gone at 63. However, Gibbs & next man in Dwayne Smith continued in the same vein & at the strategic break after 10 overs the DCH were quite happily placed at 88 for 1. After the break too the duo continued to flay the bowling & 50 runs partnership was up in 31 deliveries. The total has swelled to 113 for 1 after 12 overs. Ominous signs for the Mumbai Indians, who were made to struggle in the field. However, old wily warhorse, Sanath Jayasuriya pulled things back by bowling Smith round the legs, & the West Indian had justified his place with a well made 35 in quick time. Next in was Rohit Sharma, as Gibbs at the other end completed a wonderful 50 off just 44 balls. Bravo kept the pressure with intelligent bowling & got Rohit to hole out in the deep soon. VVS Laxman too was surprised with stock ball from Bravo & he went out for a duck caught in the deep. Two wickets in one over & MI had pulled the match back. Score at 137 for 4 as Venugopal Rao walked in for the first time this season. Gibbs was the next to go with Bravo into action again. An excellent throw from him in the very next over, had Gibbs struggling to reach the bowlers end & Gibbs was short by miles. Gibbs had complied 58 of 35 deliveries. Next man in Ravi Teja. Rao survived as Tendulkar dropped a reasonable skier in the deep, but got bowled the very next ball to a Yorker off Lasith Malinga. DCH looked in trouble with score reading 157 for 6. Bhajji got the next man in RP Singh soon, & Malinga consumed Fidel Edwards, & Ravi Teja & DCH finally ended with 168 for 9. The last 7 overs yielded only 47 runs for the loss of 7 wickets as MI came back strongly into the match. DCH had lost the plot in the middle & what looked like a certain total over 200 ended at 168, a good 30 runs short. Malinga had outstanding bowling figures with 3 for 19 & Bravo chipped in well with 3 for 34.

The chase for Mumbai Indians started with Sachin & Sanath, the two ageless wonders, With Fidel Edwards starting the bowling for the DCH. But Sanath did not last long & top edged RP Singh to Gilly with the total just at 4. JP Duminy was next in. Sachin escaped a very confident LBW the very next delivery, & DCH looked quite charged in the field. But Sachin & Duminy had other ideas & consolidated themselves, as they went about the job of scoring merrily. Runs kept coming at ease, & at the end of 10 overs, the score was 85 for 1, with Sachin at 35 & Duminy at 32. Sachin however had a loss of concentration in the strategy break & got to a simple catch to Gibbs off Pragyan Ojha. In came Shikahr Dhawan, but he got bowled out immediately trying to get the score moving. At 91 for 3 MI looked in a bit of trouble, as Dwayne Bravo walked in. This was a period where the DCH put brakes on the MI scoring & also got crucial wickets. Duminy went for 47 to a brilliant catch in the deep by Dwayne Smith, & in walked Abhishek Nayar. He started with a magnificent six but could not repeat his last match performance & got nicked behind to an express delivery from Edwards. Bhajji came in & smote a four off the first ball & then hit a six. Bravo kept the other end up & the MI had 26 to get of the last two overs. The match was indeed very well poised, but Edwards got Bravo out leg before, getting the task of MI almost out of reach. It was now 22 to get off the last over. At crease it was Zaheer & Bhajji to face RP Singh. Bhajji hit a six, but holed out in the deep, next delivery. Bhajji had put in a wonderful cameo with 20 runs off just 8 deliveries. Finally the MI fell short by 12 runs. The Deccan Chargers Hyderabad had won their third game in a row, with an incredible win against the Mumbai Indians. They were now on top of the table with 6 points. Looks like the new blue dress has got the DCH on the top of their performance.

RP Singh had retained his purple Cap by being the leading wicket taker in the tournament till now. All the bowlers, Edwards, Ojha & RP had bowled splendidly to contain the ferocious batting line up of the Mumbai Indian. Ojha in fact had picked up important wickets at crucial moments to spoil the momentum of Mumbai Indians.