Ishant Sharma
The Indian selectors will be sitting down in a few days to select the Indian team that will travel to the West Indies. And if you had to stake a claim for a place in the squad, you had to do it the Ishant Sharma way. The lanky speedster ripped through the Kochi Tuskers Kerala top and middle order and fetched Deccan Chargers a valuable two points which moved them from the bottom of the table. The Kochi scorecard read 11/6 at the end of the fifth over and you could be forgiven for assuming it to be a scorecard from a badminton or table tennis game.
It wasn’t all so easy for the Chargers who were put into bat after Jayawardene won the toss as they found themselves reduced to 6 for 2 in the second over with ex-Charger R.P. Singh getting the better of both the openers. It would have got worse for the Chargers as Sangakkara inside edged a curving ball from Sreesanth onto his stumps. But the bowler had overstepped and Sangakkara survived! It didn’t take long for Vinay Kumar to come into action as he removed the dangerous Chipli thus reducing the Chargers to 20/3.
But Sangakkara was still out there in the middle and made sure he took full advantage of the reprieve he got! Along with the struggling Cameron White, the Chargers skipper rebuilt the innings as they put on a 90 run partnership before they were dismissed of successive deliveries in the 17th over. Sangakkara made a well compiled 65 of only 47 deliveries while White scored 31. Dan Christian couldn’t provide the fireworks the Chargers expected out of him as they made 129 from their allotted 20 overs, a decent score considering the woeful start they had.
Steyn began the defence in wonderful style as he got McCullum to edge a shaping delivery. But the real fireworks would come in the second over. He first got rid Parthiv Patel who gave Sangakkara his second catch before dismissing Raiphi Gomez with a ball that swerved back in sharply. It just got better when he repeated the act and Hodge has his stumps dislodged. Kochi’s score read 2/4 and the Chargers were on fire.
Steyn followed it up with another tight over and Ishant’s night got better as he trapped Jadhav in front and followed it up with a ripper that took Jayawardene’s outside edge on the way to the keeper. Ishant had unbelievable figures of 5/6 and there was no way back in it for Kochi. Jadeja and Perera hung on for a while and helped Kochi to get to a face saving total before Steyn returned to the attack and bowled the tailenders of successive deliveries to give Deccan a 55 run win.
It is not often you will see Dale Steyn playing second fiddle to anyone and when he does, you know you have witnessed something special! It was Ishant’s night to remember as he was adjudicated the Man of the Match as Deccan leapfrogged Kochi to go sixth in the table!
Tags: Cricket, DC, Deccan Chargers, Indian Premier League, Indian Team, IPL, Ishant Sharma, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, KTK
