Page 281 - IPL1

was left to Rohit Sharma, who turned 21 during the course of
the tournament, and – in the second half of the competition –
Venugopal Rao to hold the batting together. Sharma turned out
to be one of the discoveries of the tournament. Not only did he
rarely fail – only three of his 12 innings ended in single figures
– but he scored his runs with such panache that the national
selectors ended up naming him in India’s Test squad for the
series in Sri Lanka shortly afterwards. His skills with the bat
were never displayed more fully than during an unbeaten 76 off
42 balls against Mohali. It was just a shame that the next best
score was Laxman’s 48; no one else passed 13 and the Chargers
lost by seven wickets. Rao grew in stature as the tournament
went on after playing in just three of the opening seven games.
His 71 not out off 42 balls might have resulted in victory over
Kolkata Knight Riders had he been playing for a more confident
side capable to seizing the tight moments which limited-overs

cricket specialises in.

If the bowling had fired, the Chargers may have recovered some
of the ground lost by their batsmen. But Sri Lanka’s slippery
left-arm opening bowler Chaminda Vaas was left out after just
three matches, despite claiming two for nine in his side’s opener
against Kolkata, and although Singh – who had bowled so well
during India’s famous Test-series win in England in 2007 – took
as many as 15 wickets, he went for a surprisingly expensive
8.6 runs an over, which never allowed his captain the control
necessary to win Twenty20 matches on a regular basis. Afridi
chipped in with a few wickets with his brisk top-spinners and
Styris kept things as tight as anyone with his medium-paced
dobbers, but taken as a whole the attack lacked the bite and
penetration available to other teams. In both suits of the game,
Deccan Chargers did not do what it promised on the tin.

Hyderabad used to be the capital of one of India’s greatest
empires. At the start of the tournament, the feeling was that the
talent assembled could help its cricketers recapture in sporting
form some of its old glory. It was one of the mysteries of the
inaugural IPL tournament that Deccan Chargers fell well short
of expectation.

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