Chennai's Super Kings soon losing their crown

In Match 26 of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL), the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers beat the Chennai Super Kings by 7 wickets to earn their second win of the Twenty20 tournament.

For Chennai this meant their third consecutive loss after the departure of the Australians Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey, and New Zealander Jacob Oram. This leaves a big question mark on how capable the Chennai batting order is without the Australian duo.

Earlier. the Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to field at the opposition’s home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai.

A lack of a steady partnership was the biggest factor plaguing Chennai yet again. All the batsmen got starts but none of them capitalized on them. The Chennai batsmen kept succumbing to the Deccan bowlers at regular intervals and showed no inclination to form a match-winning partnership.

Stephen Fleming (23) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14) failed to live up to their world-class status. With the veterans failing, it was left up to Suresh Raina and South African Albie Morkel to prove their worth.

Raina continued his consistent run in the tournament scoring 32 off 21 balls while Morkel is proving to be Chennai’s saving grace time and again. He was unbeaten on 29 off 19 deliveries.

In the end, Chennai could only manage 144/7 in its innings. All Deccan bowlers shared the honours of one wicket each with the exception of RP Singh who shone with figures of 2-12 off 3 overs.

The Deccan Chargers took the field with Adam Gilchrist returning to form. He put on a 24-run first-wicket partnership with Herschelle Gibbs and another 54-run stand with Scott Styris soon after. By the time he departed in the tenth over, he alone had scored 54 runs off 36 deliveries.

However, Styris stayed on to see his side through to the end losing only Rohit Sharma along the way.

This game also saw a return of form by the exuberant Shahid Afridi who hit an unbeaten 20 off just 6 balls to steer his side home with 2 overs to spare. He was in a hurry to wrap up proceedings hitting 2 sixes and 2 fours in a single over.
Adam Gilchrist was adjudicated Player of The Match for his solid innings at the top of the Deccan order.

The next match of the IPL will be played between the Rajasthan Royals and the Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Sports Stadium at Mumbai.