Deccan charge continues

12 runs

THE 8216;O8217; FACTOR

Nice one,Shane,a phrase made famous by Adam Gilchrist while keeping to the bowling of Shane Warne,has been replaced this IPL by nice one,O as the Hyderabad skipper has been heard encouraging Pragyan Ojha. And the left-arm spinner has been one of Gilchrists main weapons as Hyderabad,who managed only two wins out of 14 last year,posted their third victory on the trot on Saturday.

Sachin Tendulkar and JP Duminy had built up a solid platform for Mumbai as they chased 169 for victory,needing only 85 from the last 10 overs with nine wickets in hand.

But Ojha,in his first over after the strategy break,had Tendulkar caught by Gibbs at cover. He then clean bowled Shikhar Dhawan and added the crucial wicket of Duminy in his final over to crush Mumbais hopes.

ON THE CHARGE

AT the start,Gilchrist may have looked unusually jittery as he defended the first four balls of the innings from Lasith Malinga,but he was on his way after smacking the fifth delivery over the long-on boundary. The in-form Deccan captain,who had smashed a 45-ball 71 to lead his team to victory against Bangalore on Wednesday,was off to yet another flying start. By the time he edged a wide Dwayne Bravo delivery to keeper Pinal Shah after a 20-ball 35 the Chargers were comfortably scoring more than nine runs an over.

Herschelle Gibbs also started on an unconvincing note,one miscue barely clearing Dhawan at mid-off. But after playing second-fiddle to Gilchrist early on,the South African batsman,along with Dwayne Smith,started taking the Mumbai attack apart.

Gibbs and Smith,who scored a 22-ball 35,added 61 runs off 36 balls. Dhawal Kulkarni,playing his first match of the tournament,suffered the most,going for 18 runs in his only over,with both batsmen hitting a six each.

The Chargers did falter towards the end,starting with the dismissal of Gibbs,who was run-out for a 44-ball 58 after a bad call from Venugopal Rao. Bravo got rid of Rohit Sharma and VVS Laxman in the same over,and Malinga bowled a couple of tight overs in the end,including a double-wicket maiden to finish the innings.

Forget them not

amp;149; Dwayne Smith delivered a brilliant all-round performance in his first game this year. After a quickfire 35,he also bowled two tight overs and took two smart catches in the outfield.

amp;149; RP Singh and Fidel Edwards continued to impress with the new ball,returning identical figures of 2-27 from four overs each. Singh got Jayasuriya at the top while Edwards dismissed Bravo and Abhishek Nayar.

amp;149; Tendulkar continued his good form as he scored a 27-ball 36 and shared a 82-run stand,which came off 55 balls,with Duminy. The South African contributed a 40-ball 47.