For a change, the second semi-final of the third Indian Premier League proved to be a bowler's game.
For a change, the second semi-final of the third Indian Premier League proved to be a bowler's game.
The DY Patil Stadium wicket was not the kind where you could blindly play your normal slam-bang brand of Twenty20 cricket. It had some juice for the pacers and assistance for slow bowlers.
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| CSK's Shadab Jakati castles DC's Herschelle Gibbs during their IPL semi-final at Nerul's DY Patil Stadium last night. Pic/Atul Kamble |
It was an ideal test of a batsman's skill and temperament and both the Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings batsmen showcased some poor batting to make it a low-scoring game.
And of the two sides, Chargers perhaps were the worst offenders. They must have fancied their chances when they restricted Super Kings to 142. But they batted even poorly to lose by 38 runs.
Super Kings could be excused for misreading the wicket as they made first use of the track. Chargers though, had the advantage of planning their chase.
However, Adam Gilchrist and Co got their gameplan all wrong.
Even though they had just 143 to get, it was important that the Chargers capitalised on field restrictions to keep the required run-rate under control. Strong in their spin department, Super Kings are known to take the pace off the wicket in the middle overs.
Openers Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs surprisingly batted in a subdued manner and failed to capitalise on the powerplay restrictions. At the end of five overs, Chargers were 19 for no loss and their case worsened when Doug Bollinger struck twice in the sixth over to make it 23 for two.
With the required run-rate climbing with each over, Rohit Sharma perished while going for a big shot in the eighth over to make it 31 for three. By the time Chargers' in-form batsman Andrew Symonds walked out to bat, the team had lost too much ground for him to retrieve the situation.
Skipper Gilchrist admitted their strategy to bat cautiously backfired. When asked as to why they went slow in the first six overs, Gilchrist said: "We wanted to build a foundation for the others. In hindsight, we could have been a bit more aggressive."
Gilchrist said that 142 was a score which could be chased on this wicket, but their batting failed them completely today. "We failed as a batting unit and that led to our defeat. In previous matches, at least one or two of our players have put up their hands and rescued us. But today, all our batsmen failed collectively and that is why we could not chase 142," said the Chargers skipper.
