T20 Cricket News

Deccan Chargers 170 for 7 (Symonds 53, Yuvraj 2-21) v Kings XI Punjab

It was as if there were two games out there: Deccan against pace and Deccan against spin. They looted runs against the seamers and struggled against the spinners to reach a competitive 170 in the first IPL game to be held in Cuttack.

Whenever Deccan required some quick runs to get some momentum going, Sreesanth seemed ready to gift them some easy runs. His first largesse came in the second over when he went for 23 runs with Adam Gilchrist plundering two fours and two sixes. A stunning six hit on the up to straight boundary was the highlight.

Gilchrist's 17-minute manic knock charged Decan to 43 in 3 overs. Although they lost VVS Laxman almost immediately - he was forced to retire hurt after being hit on his wrist by a wayward throw from Shalabh Srivastava - Gilchrist's effort allowed them to reach 84 for 1 in nine overs. This is where Sreesanth entered the picture to give his second offering to Deccan. This time around he leaked 16 runs, with Symonds hitting a typically muscled six over long-on, and two fours.

At this point things could have gone horribly wrong for Punjab, but Yuvraj Singh slipped in a tidy spell that read 4-0-21-2 to peg back Deccan. It was the typical bag of tricks from him - variation in pace and the alteration in trajectory - but it was enough to slow down proceedings on this slow track. In the 11th over, he removed Herschelle Gibbs with an arm-ball and saw a slow-off-the-blocks Rohit Sharma run himself out. Bipul Sharma and Piyush Chawla slipped in couple of relatively quiet overs and when Yuvraj induced Symonds to hole out to long-on, Deccan had reached 144 for 5 in 17 overs.

If Gilchrist's was an adrenalin-charged innings, Symonds', barring that explosion against Sreesanth, was more measured. He played the spinners with relative caution, often checking his drives, and making sure he didn't throw his wicket away.

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