Related Links : Champions League Twenty20 2009 | Scorecard
IPL Champs Deccan Chargers faced a shock defeat in the hands of the energetic Trinidad and Tobago just a few moments back at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. As a result of the defeat, Deccan Chargers have been knocked out of the ongoing Champions League with T&T and Somerset qualifying for the League phase from Group A. In their first game as well, the Chargers faced a shock defeat which was against Somerset. In today’s contest, T&T beat them by just 3 runs and to record their second victory of the tournament.
The start and the end of the match, both were terrible for the homeside. Gilchrist won the toss and opted to bowl first but his new ball bowlers – Fidel Edwards and RP Singh provided a lousy start. RP Singh in particular had a shocker with a hat-trick of no-balls. T&T raced to a rapid fifty in just over 5 overs but strangely were pegged down in the rest of their innings. A couple of runs outs and three good balls from Fidel Edwards provided the much needed fightback for the Chargers. The Caribbean side could post just 149 for 7 on the board. Opener William Perkins top scored with 38 from 32 balls while Kieron Pollard took care of the fireworks in the end with 31 from 14 balls which included 4 sixes.
In their chase, Deccan Chargers were put under massive pressure at 30 for 3 in the 5th over when Andrew Symonds was run out. The innings had to revolve around Adam Gilchrist who every now and then came up with some calculated risky shots to take the score forward. He found an able ally in Rohit Sharma with whom a fifty run-partnership was possible. However in the 12th over, T&T fought back with Gilchrist getting caught brilliantly in the deep off a pull shot. The Deccan Chargers’ Skipper scored 51 from 36 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes. Just a couple of balls later, Rohit Sharma (25 from 24 balls) flashed leg spinner Samuel Badree into the hands of point to put his team back in trouble at 86 for 5.
The Chargers certainly were down and out but could luckily recover through the partnership between Venugopal Rao and Styris. Venu stepped out and smashed a couple of sixes towards the sightscreen to ease a lot of pressure but T&T again fought back sending both Styris and Venugopal Rao (30 from 19 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes) back to the dug out. In the last over, DC needed 8 runs to win with T Suman being the only accomplished batsman. The bowler was Dwayne Bravo who kept the ball up and gave nothing for the batsmen to get underneath for the big shots. Suman faced up 10 balls in total but could score just 9 which was not enough to see his side through in the crunch. Bravo conceded just the 4 runs in the final over besides taking 3 wickets in his 4 overs and was right awarded the Man of the Match.