It was the time for the week-end double header. A rejuvinated Rajastan Royals took on CSK, whereas the high-flying Mumbai Indians locked horn with the defending champions Deccan Chargers.
RR, riding on the confidences of their previous three wins, opted to bat first and scored a very good total of 177 despite of Yusuf Pathan's failure. The hero of their effort this time was Naman Ojaha, who scored a 49-ball 80 with 5 sixes and 8 fours.Earlier, Lumb, provided a blazing start yet again, with a 16-ball 30, before being lured into a false shot by Morkel slower delivery.
In reply, CSK started well, as Vijay played his best innings of this tournament, scoring 42 off 28 deliveries, before being caught short by a Yusuf Pathan direct throw. There were no other major contributions, and the asking rate became increasingly unmanageable as the overs progressed, and gradually CSK crumbled under pressure.
This season, CSK have been awful. Despite of starting as a favorite to reach the semi-finals, they have badly struggled. Dhoni's absence due to injury for about 10 days hasn't helped their cause either. It's certainly looking like curtains for them, unless they win every match hereon, which, going by their form, looks highly unlikely.
The other match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians turned out to be an out and out Harbhajan show. He balsted a 18 ball 49 to take their total to 172, which looked highly unlikely when Tendulkar fell for well made 55 at the end of 16.4 overs,then the score was 119. Had it not been for Harbhajan's heroics, they would have settled down for a much lesser total. Having dented Deccan Chargers' confidence with the bat, Harbhajan then took the new ball and removed their captain Gilchrist in the very first over of their run chase. Though, for a brief while, it looked like Gibbs was going to take the responsibility, he fell to an ambitious square cut. Non of the other batsmen stayed long, apart from Rohit Sharma, who tried his best to keep up with the asking rate with a 28-ball 45. When he failed to keep a Zaheer Khan yorker away from his stumps in the 17th over, the match was all but over. Eventually, the MI completed the formalities in the next over.
The reason for Deccan's loss was simple, they didn't keep their heads, played some irresponsible shots. When they needed to rally around Rohit Sharma, all other batsmen, before getting their eyes in, tried too many lofted strokes.
They have to quickly put this effort out of their mind and concentrate on the next match.
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