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Hyderabad: Two games into IPL 4, Kumar Sangakkara must be wondering if, like Adam Gilchrist, a left-handed wicket-keeper batsman, he too has inherited a team that does not behove of its potential on paper.
It is inexplicable but that's the way it has been with Chargers and the skipper will have to get his teammates to pull their weight in the same direction if he intends to arrest the downward spiral.
The heart to win was conspicuous by its absence as first Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals and then Gautam Gambhir's Kolkata Knight Riders exposed the frailties in Chargers' batting.
A misfiring top-order meant the powerplay was never fully made capital use of and the Chargers openers' ability to sustain their hitting will come under scrutiny in their first night game at home against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.
That is only half their worry as a wobbly middle apart, gnawing at them would be their poor record at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. They have played 10 home games (7 in IPL 1 in 2008, 2 champions League matches in 2009 and 1 IPL match in 2011) and are yet to win one. Sangakkara's twin failure has on both occasions brought JP Duminy into a situation where he has had to rebuild at frenetic pace - a task fraught with danger.
Daniel Christian has shown that he is no lark with the bat and his ability to biff the ball a fair distance along with DB Ravi Teja has spared Chargers the blushes.
Their spin twins Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra looked to have overcome their initial hesitancy and acquitted themselves well against Knight Riders, while their pacers Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma have not fared badly; it must be said in their favour that they did not get a decent score to defend in the first game and when they did well to restrict KKR, the batsmen made a hash of what could have been a good chase and that which could have instilled self-belief that accrues from combating tough situations.
It was one such situation the Royal Challengers found themselves in the other night, failed to wriggle out and Mumbai Indians ran out comprehensive winners.
But there is no gainsaying the fact that the RCB batting wears a healthy look what with the likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers having already logged a half-century each. Add to that the prowess of Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary and damage limitation can be quite a task.
The one major worry for skipper Daniel Vettori concerns Dirk Nannes, who bowled one over against Mumbai Indians before leaving the field with a bad back. Royal Challengers will hope that he is back on park to bolster the attack led by Zaheer Khan.
It's been an interesting tussle between the two southern outfits who have pretty much kept each other company the last three seasons. The first edition saw RCB and DC finish seventh and eighth in the table, the second saw DC and RCB finish winners and runners-up. RCB were third and DC fourth in the third edition. The teams have won three each of the six games played so far and it remains to be seen which way this goes because Chargers will not play away at RCB this season.
Teams from
Deccan Chargers KC Sangakkara (capt & wk), A Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, AA Bhandari, B Chipli, DT Christian, KH Devdhar, S Dhawan, JP Duminy, MS Gony, Harmeet Singh, IR Jaggi, MJ Lumb, CA Lynn, I Malhotra, A Mishra, PP Ojha, KP Pietersen, DB Ravi Teja, JN Shah, I Sharma, S Sohal, DW Steyn, J Theron, CL White, AS Yadav
Royal Challengers Bangalore DL Vettori (capt), MA Agarwal, S Aravind, KB Arun Karthik, BN Bharath, RR Bhatkal, AB de Villiers, TM Dilshan, ANPR Fernando, CM Gautam, M Kaif, AA Kazi, Z Khan, V Kohli, CK Langeveldt, A Mithun, DP Nannes, R Ninan, AUK Pathan, LA Pomersbach, CA Pujara, RR Rossouw, SS Tiwary, JJ van der Wath, JD Vandiar
Match facts
Thursday April 14, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
