DURBAN (Reuters) – Herschelle Gibbs crafted an unbeaten half-century as the Deccan Chargers maintained their position at the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) thanks to a six-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings yesterday.
The Mumbai Indians routed the Kolkata Knight Riders by 92 runs after Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar pummelled the bowling attack with an opening stand of 127 runs off 74 balls in the day’s other match.
South African Gibbs carried his bat to end on 69 not out off 56 balls as Deccan scored 169 for four in reply to Chennai’s 165 for six at Kingsmead in Durban. The winning runs were scored with three balls of Deccan’s innings remaining and the result gives the franchise four wins out of four matches for a two-point lead atop the IPL standings.
Gibbs and Adam Gilchrist got Deccan’s innings off to a perfect start as the pair smashed 67 runs for the first wicket, with their 50-run partnership coming off just 23 balls, the fastest of this year’s tournament. Australian Gilchrist fell for 44 runs off 19 balls with five fours and three sixes.
Off spinners Suresh Raina and Muttiah Muralitharan were the most impressive of Chennai’s bowlers. Raina returned figures of 2-18 off four overs while Muralitharan picked up 1-17 off his. Chennai’s total had been built around 49 runs off 35 balls from the tournament’s leading run scorer Matthew Hayden while New Zealand’s Jacob Oram smashed 41 not out off 29 balls towards the backend of Chennai’s innings.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha snared 2-11 off two overs for Deccan.
Jayasuriya and Tendulkar propelled Mumbai to 187 for six at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth and the massive target proved too much for Kolkata who subsided to 95 all out in 15.2 overs. India’s Tendulkar carved his way to 68 off 45 balls with six fours and four sixes.
Sri Lankan Jayasuriya was equally destructive as his 52 included two fours and four sixes.
Seamer Laxmi Shukla was the only Kolkata bowler to concede less than seven runs an over and his accuracy was rewarded with figures of 3-25 off four overs.
Saurav Ganguly, with 34 off 30 balls, was the only Kolkata batsman to offer much resistance as fast bowler Lasith Malinga, with 3-11, and medium pacer Abhishek Nayar, with 3-13, polished the side off.
