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Crestfallen Deccan Chargers takes on Rajasthan Royals

A. Joseph Antony

The home team’s big guns have failed to fire thus far

— File Photo

LONG OVERDUE: Deccan Chargers will be pinning its hopes on Adam Gilchrist, who hasn’t exactly set the stands on fire with his big hitting so far in the IPL, to deliver the goods and get his team’s show on road.

HYDERABAD: Despair is bound to hang heavy in the air, a day after defeat. It would be doubly so for the Deccan Chargers, defused by two debacles on the trot, the second more disconcerting than the first. This for a team, still billed by some to be the best, should be hard to digest.

The Hyderabad squad’s big guns have failed to fire thus far, accounting largely for its dismal run. Could the city’s cool and laidback character have seeped into their psyches? Were its batsmen done in by their own casual approach or pushed to the backfoot by worthier opponents? Those should be some doubts skipper V.V.S. Laxman will strive to lay to rest when Chargers takes on Rajasthan Royals on Thursday.

Not given to tall talk or claims, he dispassionately dissected his side’s Tuesday downfall. Close on the heels of the defeat by Delhi Daredevils, after that hurried post-match post-mortem, he referred in a rush to a revival against Royals. Crestfallen though he was, there was no trace of desperation.

Overdue

Understandably so, for from deputy Adam Gilchrist should come one of his patently destructive assaults which has been long overdue. That’s not improbable too, for the awesome Aussie has seen it all, if not had them all at his mercy, when it came to mauling bowlers. With the side’s other swashbuckler Shahid Afridi, the duo can script quite a demolition duet.

Rajasthan Royals, led by Shane Warne the man hailed for reviving the art of leg-spin, showed he’d lost none of his guile with that three for 19 against Kings XI Punjab on Monday. As one-time deputy to the indomitable Steve Waugh, Warne is a battle-scarred wizard, who’s left the best in the business looking pretty ordinary. As captain and coach, the twin-role mantle should tweak out the best of him, if not to dispel the myth that on lifeless tracks of the sub-continent, his success has been sparse.

If triumph is an upshot of team-spirit, the rank and file of the Rajasthan Royals, drawn from many corners of the globe, appear much melded, such unison sought after by every team with ambitions on the crown.

The teams (from):

Deccan Chargers: V.V.S. Laxman (captain), Sanjay Bangar, Haldhar Das (wk), Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, Adam Gilchrist (wk), D. Kalyankrishna, Pragyan Ojha, D. Ravi Teja, P.M. Sarvesh Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh, Chamara Silva, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas, Y. Venugopala Rao, P. Vijay Kumar, Arjun Yadav, Nuwan Zoysa.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (captain), Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Kaif, Kamran Akmal (wk), Sumit Khatri, Taruwar Kohli, Mahesh Rawat, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Parag More, Morne Morkel, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Anup Revandkar, Jaydev Sha, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Younis Khan, Dinesh Salunkhe.

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