Symonds helps Chargers thump Chennai

Andrew Symonds smashed a fifty and took 2 wkts to lead Hyderabad to a dominating win over Chennai.

Zeecric Bureau

Chennai: Andrew Symonds smashed a fifty and took two wickets to lead Deccan Chargers to a dominating 31-run win over the Chennai Super Kings. Chaminda Vaas provided the opening onslaught as he ripped apart the Chennai top-order after the Deccan batsmen had put on a total of 190/4 on the board. For the home team, skipper MS Dhoni and Albie Morkel emerged as the top scorers with 42 each.Chasing 191 to win, Chennai could never crawl back into the game after Vaas had given the visitors an excellent start with the ball. Pragyan Ojha also took two wickets for the Hyderabad outfit. The Sri Lankan veteran dismissed Murali Vijay (3) and Suresh Raina (6) in just his second over and then returned to send back the dangerous Matthew Hayden. Chennai were looking to crawl back but were landed another blow by Ojha who sent back S Badrinath to leave the hosts reeling at 32 for four. Dhoni, first with Kemp and then with Morkel, tried to do the resurrecting act but could not do much and eventually the Chennai side could manage just 159, giving the visitors their first victory in the third edition of the IPL by 31 runs. Earlier, Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist won the toss and decided to bat first. Gilchrist took off in familiar fashion as he helped the Deccan Chanrgers to an explosive start. Gilchrist, who came out to open the innings with VVS Laxman looked to be a bit watchful in the first over but smashed Sudeep Tyagi’s second over for 19 runs, blasting two massive sixes and a cracking four off it. South African Albie Morkel was next in line to face Gilchrist’s wrath. After almost breaking the quickie’s finger with a fierce straight hit hat went for four, Gilly went on to smash it for another four and six off the next two deliveries. Chargers’ scorecard read 41/0 after 3 overs. The sudden blitz forced Dhoni to replace the quick bowlers with spinners. Muralitharan took over from Tyagi while Ravichandran Ashwin was introduced in place of Morkel. The bowling change seemed to work instantly as Ashwin clean bowled the dangerous Gilchrist as the latter stepped out trying to smash another one out of the park. Gilchrist 38 off just 17 balls including 4 fours and 3 sixes.An error of judgment led to Laxman’s dismissal off the very next delivery, bringing the Chennai side back into the game. Gibbs, who came in at number three played one on the on side and called for a quick run but Suresh Raina collected the ball quickly and threw the stumps down before Laxman could cross the crease. Things slowed down considerably thereafter as the new pair of Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs struggled to get the bowlers away. The next four overs producing just 2, 6, 3 and 3 runs respectively. The scoring rate, however, picked up from there on as Gibbs started to break free as he hit Justin kemp for a couple of fours in the 10th over. Symonds, whohad scored just 3 runs off 17 balls cut loose in the 12th over, hitting L Balaji for a massive six and a four off consecutive deliveries. Runs continued to flow at a decent pace for a few overs thereafter. A misunderstanding between the two batsmen in the 18th over led to Gibbs’ dismissal for 45 but it seemd to have little impact on the burly Symonds who hit a massive six off the very next delivery he faced and completed his half-ton off just 43 balls. The trend of wickets falling in pairs continued as Symonds (50) too departed run out, the third of the innings, soon after Gibbs’ dismissal. Rohit Sharma and T Suman scored quickly in the last few overs to take Deccan Chargers to 190/4 off their stipulated quota of 20 overs. Teams: Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist (C), Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Anirudh Singh, T Suman, Jaskaran Singh, Chaminda Vaas, RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C), Matthew Hayden, S Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Justin Kemp, Albie Morkel, Manpreet Gony, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sudeep Tyagi, L Balaji, R Ashiwn.