Sharma’s fiery spell gives Deccan Chargers 55-run win

Riding on fast bowler Ishant Sharma’s fiery spell of five for 12, Deccan Chargers thrashed Kochi Tuskers Kerala by 55 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Nehru Stadium here Wednesday.

Man of the Match Sharma, who registered the third best IPL figures, wrecked the Kochi Tuskers batting and reduced them to 11 for six in four overs.

Ravindra Jadeja (23), Thisara Pereira (22) and R Vinay Kumar (18) were the only Kochi batsmen who could get to double figures before their innings wrapped up in 16.3 overs while chasing Deccan Chargers 129 for seven.

Dale Steyn struck in the first over to remove opener Brendan McCullum, who edged to wicketkeeper and skipper Kumar Sangakkara. In the next over, Sharma struck thrice in four balls to get rid of Parthiv Patel, Raiphi Gomez and Brad Hodge to leave the home team at two for four wickets. Patel was caught behind by the skipper while Gomez and Hodge were castled by Sharma’s in-swinging deliveries. All the four batsmen went back to the dugout without opening their accounts.

Sharma struck again in his next over when he trapped Kedar Jadhav plumb in front of the wicket and five balls later, got Kochi Tuskers’ captain Mahela Jayawardene (4) caught behind by Sangakkara to leave them reeling at 11/6.

Jadeja and Perera added 36 runs for the seventh wicket before Manpreet Gony struck in the 11th over to have Perera caught by Cameron White in the covers.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra got Jadeja caught by Daniel Christian at deep mid-wicket while Steyn wrapped up the innings by rattling the stumps of Vinay Kumar and Rudra Pratap Singh off successive deliveries.

Earlier in the day, Vinay Kumar took three wickets while Rudra Pratap Singh scalped two as Kochi Tuskers Kerala restricted Deccan Chargers to 129 for seven.

Sangakkara top scored with 65 while Cameron White made 31. They were the only two batsmen who got to double figures and they added 90 runs for the fourth wicket that saw the visitors get to a challenging total.

Sangakkara’s 65 came from 47 ball and included 10 fours while White hit two fours and a six in his 34-ball stay.

Scoreboard

Deccan Chargers:

Sunny Sohal lbw Singh 1

Shikhar Dhawan c Gomez b Singh 4

Bharat Chipli c Sreesanth b Vinay Kumar 4

Kumar Sangakkara c Patel b Vinay Kumar 65

Cameron White c Jayawardene b Vinay Kumar 31

Daniel Christian b Perera 9

Ravi Teja not out 8

Amit Mishra run out (Patel/Perera) 0

Manpreet Gony not out 0

Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 3, nb 2) 7

Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 129

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Sohal, 0.6 overs), 2-6 (Dhawan, 2.2), 3-20 (Chipli, 5.2), 4-110 (White, 16.5), 5-110 (Sangakkara, 16.6), 6-127 (Christian, 19.3), 7-127 (Mishra, 19.4)

Bowling:

Rudra Pratap Singh 4-0-21-2

S Sreesanth 4-1-22-0

R Vinay Kumar 4-0-25-3

Thisara Perera 4-0-30-1

Raiphi Gomez 1-0-4-0

Ravindra Jadeja 3-0-25-0

Kochi Tuskers Kerala:

Brendan McCullum c Sangakkara b Steyn 0

Mahela Jayawardene c Sangakkara b Sharma 4

Parthiv Patel c Sangakkara b Sharma 0

Raiphi Gomez b Sharma 0

Brad Hodge b Sharma 0

Match referee: Satayabrata Mukherjee (India)