Deccan Chargers Still Needs To Re-Group

The moment Herche was caught by Sachin at the slip a close follower of the game and a friend of mine from South Africa sent me a text message "Someone should clip Herchelle Gibbs one upside the back of the head.." Well Well, I was disappointed and only hoped that Gilly would change his game strategy and stay on the wicket a bit longer and allow the Chargers to reach a defendable total against the Mumbai Indians. Remember Mumbai had to win the game at any cost.

The problem with early wickets of the likes of Herche, Sachin, Jayasuriya, Gilly is that the team morale gets shattered and the team thinks it is the end of the road. What is important and must happen is to realise that there are other 9 guys sitting on the bench with the support staff who must immediately get into the act and get the focus back on what would be done next. It is easier said than done. As i wrote in my earlier blog, strategy must change every ball and at every fall of wicket. That fast is the T20 game. Even the best of the commentators on TV go wrong most times.

It was clear that Suman would take on Bhajji as Gilly looked pretty subdued in his approach. Gilly's natural game is to attack and he must take on the bowlers if Chargers need to put up a sizable score on the board. He is a superb timer of the ball and would only need to wait and take as much time on wickets similar to the one that was on offer at the Supersport park. His backfoot stroke play would have produced more runs last evening as opposed to the slog that he chose and eventually lost his wicket. There was enough on the offer for the spinners but none of the guys used it to their advantage until Rohit came in and demolished the Mumbaikars who until then looked decisively going on to win the game hands down. The moment once again vindicated the "game of glorious uncertainties" stature to Cricket. I feel it was a perfect ploy from Gilly. He could read the spin and the hattrick wicket of Duminy was surely set up. It was obvious from Gilly standing on the wide edge of the crease for that shot played by Duminy and he nicked it into the hands of the wicket keeper. Duminy was shell shcoked as he didnt imagine the man to be there for that catch.

It is nice to see your team back on the top. However, the chargers need to sort out a lot of problems. They do have match winning bolwers in RP and Ojha but they need to get the batting and fielding strategy right. Gilly needs to get his fielding positions right. The catch offered by Jayasuriya is no big set up. Third man boundary is where he offered most of his dismissal opportunities in his dominating career and he gets it wrong few times. Sometimes one gets a feeling that the support staff have not done their homework right in terms of where to bowl to each batsman and what field to set. The team must re-focus and re-group and assign job to each man in the team. They have won the game against the might Mumbai Indians. Now they must not get complacent. Herche needs to be patient and get his bat talking. The next few games are decisive for all 7 teams in the competition except KKR all 7 could still make it to the top. Probably this win by the Chargers gives them the breather at the right time. However every win and loss and the net run rate will count from here.

Let the best 4 reach the Semi's. I would love to see a CSK Vs DC Semi Final certainly....

All the best Chargers!