Deccan defeats Rajasthan

Deccan Chargers hit pay dirt in this diamond mining town on Monday, making all the right moves to stitch together a huge 53-run victory over defending champions Rajasthan Royals in the DLF Indian Premier League at the De Beers Diamond Oval here to enhance their chances of staying in the tournament beyond the double leg and into the semifinals.

To begin with, skipper Adam Gilchrist and the team management chose to rope in Chaminda Vaas for the big game ahead of South African openers Herschelle Gibbs – and that move paid off big time as Vaas not only made a useful 20 but backed it up with early wickets of the dangerous Graeme Smith and Lee Carseldine.

Then, Dwayne Smith slammed four sixes, taking his tournament tally to 15, as he made a quickfire 47 to power Deccan Chargers to a total of 167 for seven in 20 overs after being 95 for four in 14. Smith was in charge as Deccan Chargers made 72 runs in those final six overs from Abhishek Raut, Ravindra Jadeja, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Warne and Yusuf Pathan.

Jadeja (two for 24) and Pathan (three for 34) claimed wickets and were quite effective but Warne was listless, often dropping the ball short to finish with one for 36 from four overs on Monday. He used Munaf Patel for an over with the new ball and did not return to him through the Deccan Chargers innings, including when the lower middle-order went on a rampage.

The target was achievable – as Mumbai Indians had shown a couple of nights ago at the same venue -- but it needed someone to anchor the innings while others had to ensure. In his first twop overs, Vaas ensured that that anchoring effort would not come from either Smith or Carseldine, the latter to a stumping by Gilchrist.

Asnodkar ploughed a lonely furrow as the game kept going away from Rajasthan Royals. Yusuf Pathan’s failure – well caught by Dwayne Smith at long-off when he tried to cart Pragyan Ojha out of the ground – meant that the team did not have the firepower to even close the gap. Sadly, for Rajasthan Royals, there was a messy collapse engineered by Rohit Sharma’s off-spin.

Rajasthan Royals will be now hoping that the rash of wickets from 74 for three to 113 all out on Monday will not come back to haunt them when the semifinalists are spotted. Of course, they have to play against Kolkata Knight Riders, who are at the bottom of the pile now, but before that, they have two tough games against Mumbai Indians and table-toppers Delhi Daredevils.

Deccan Chargers (12 points from 10 games) swapped the third and fourth places with Rajasthan Royals (11 points but from 11 games). In their last four games in the league, Gilchrist’s team have to play leaders Delhi Daredevils and stragglers Kolkata Knight Riders as well as Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore.