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Rohit revels

V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: Deccan Chargers failed to drive home the advantage of batting first on a perfect pitch and came up with a disappointing display to be restricted to 142 for eight in 20 overs against Delhi Daredevils in the DLF Indian Premier League at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday night.

The fireworks were missing from the big guns but Rohit Sharma came up with a nice knock (66, 36 balls, 6x4, 4x6) with the highlight being the onslaught on Ferveez Maharoof in the 18th over when he picked two sixes and three fours.

Good bowling

Earlier the home team was done in, not by any devil in the pitch but high quality opening spells from Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif on a pitch which played true.

Adam Gilchrist started off in style, whipping Asif over mid-wicket for a huge six.

But the bowler forced the batsman play on and leave the crowd stunned. Venugopala Rao looked a misfit as an opener despite one clean stroke over bowler McGrath’s head.

Big blows

The big blow was struck when skipper V.V.S. Laxman was beaten by pace and late swing from Asif. Symonds impressed early with a powerful pull off McGrath before wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik took a brilliant catch diving to his right. Venugopala Rao had holed out attempting one of his many desperate strokes.

The star-studded batting line-up was dished out an object lesson in the art of quality swing bowling from not just McGrath and Asif but even Maharoof who too stuck to an impeccable off-stump line.

The scores:

Deccan Chargers: A. Gilchrist b Mohd Asif 8, Y. Venugopala Rao c Dhawan b Maharoof 14, V.V. S. Laxman b Asif 2, A. Symonds c Karthick b Maharoof 12, Rohit c McGrath b Bhatia 66, S. Afridi b Bhatia 2, S. Bangar (run out) 8, N. Arjun Yadav c Gambhir b Yomahesh 12, C. Vaas (not out) 12, R.P.Singh (not out) 1; Extras (lb-3, w-1, nb-1): 5; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 142.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-23, 3-36, 4-45, 5-60, 6-82, 7-123, 8-129.

Delhi Daredevils bowling: McGrath 4-1-22-0, Asif 4-0-19-2, Maharoof 4-0-36-2, Yomahesh 4-0-35-1, Bhatia 4-0-27-2.

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