It literally turned out to be an exhibition of Deccan Chargers’ might as the defending IPL champions indulged in some useful match practice
at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in front of a partisan crowd on Monday.
Gilly XI captained by Adam Gilchrist battled it out against Suman XI led by T. Suman. The former stole the thunder, scoring a comfortable eight-wicket win with 5.3 overs to spare. More importantly, it was a chance for the champion team to test their bench strength before the big battle begins on Friday night.
The match proved to be a good outing for Gilchrist (47) who showed glimpses of form as he played some delightful shots all over the ground in his short stay in the middle. The legendary left-hander entertained the crowd in his 24-ball knock that had seven fours and two sixes.
The other main contributors for his side were Arjun Yadav (41) and Y. Venugopal Rao who chipped in with an unbeaten 27. Chargers’ trump card Pragyan Ojha was asked to bowl for both the sides and the left-armer did not disappoint. Turning up for Gilly XI, Ojha took 3 for 18 and bagged figures of 0 for 11 in his second outing in the match.
Earlier, Suman XI took first strike and were on the backfoot straightaway, slipping to 30 for 4 by the end of the fifth over. Gilchrist marshalled his resources brilliantly, keeping a check on the opposition’s scoring rate by picking wickets at regular intervals. While the big guns — V.V.S. Laxman (4), Andrew Symonds (5) failed to fire, youngsters T. Suman (62) and Ravi Teja (22) mixed panache and prudence, taking their team to 78 before a terrible mix-up in the middle saw the latter being found short of his crease. Meanwhile, Suman played a captain’s knock and brought up a well-deserved half-century. He was instrumental in his side reaching 134 for 9.
Brief scores: Suman XI 134 for 9 in 20 overs (T. Suman 62, Ravi Teja 22; Pragyan Ojha 3/18, Rahul Sharma 2/14, Sarvesh Kumar 2/29) lost to Gilly XI 138 for 2 in 14.3 overs (Adam Gilchrist 47, Arjun Yadav 41, Y. Venugopal Rao 27 n.o; Akshath Reddy 1/19, Andrew Symonds 1/16).