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[Blwe_torch]

Congrats DC!  A fine victory!

[LosingNow]

Early days.. but KKR dont look like a team..

[LosingNow]

DC fielding coach is a baseball guy.

[ramshorns]

Great opening win for the DC.  They need to just keep working on their game.  Great effort on the field followed by the top 4 finishing it in style.  Rohit is just great and Gibbs continues his form.  Gilly needs perhaps a game or two more to get into groove.  But he has the game and greatness to get there.  VVS will be handy here in SA.  As long as he does not get carried away he can be that pivot the team can bat around given that in this version of the IPL bowlers definitely have a say and players like VVS will have a role in the intital 12-14 overs.  But all and all very satisfying to get this going on the right path.

[ganavk]

SG and BM discussing baseball signs

Yeah..I observed that too. Are they trying to use that in Cricket also. That would be good. May be spinners can indicate that to WK before bowling

[LosingNow]

RPS MOM. good for him.

It could have been easily Rohit for his batting and fielding

[Blwe_torch]

SG and BM discussing baseball signs

Yeah..I observed that too. Are they trying to use that in Cricket also. That would be good. May be spinners can indicate that to WK before bowling

I don't know of baseball signs.....but if SG is doing that, I am afraid, it is curtains for KKR!

[cricket_news]

Tidy Deccan overwhelm Kolkata
19 April 2009, 8:36 pm



Deccan Chargers 104 for 2 (Gibbs 43*, Rohit 36*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 101 (RP Singh 4-22) by eight wickets

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

How they were out



Herschelle Gibbs' unbeaten 43 guided Deccan Chargers to a comprehensive victory

© Getty Images

Could the script have been any different from last year's start for the Kolkata Knight Riders? Brendon McCullum's intoxicating 158 had taken them to an enormous victory a year ago, but they were outplayed by an efficient Deccan Chargers outfit on a juicy pitch in Cape Town. It has been a weekend to savour for bowlers, and each member of Deccan's attack did their bit to leave Kolkata scrambling to reach triple-digits. Herschelle Gibbs, coming off a triumphant series against Australia, and Rohit Sharma, back in the country where he made his name in 2007, then made sure Deccan's campaign didn't begin in the dismal way last season's had.

Kolkata had packed their batting with foreign players, but it wasn't enough to prevent a hapless batting performance. Their formidable top order was handcuffed by Deccan's new-ball bowlers. Fidel Edwards was fast and frugal - consistently around the 140kph mark, he gave away only six runs, the lowest conceded in a completed IPL spell - and RP Singh evicted the Kolkata openers early.

Everything went right for Deccan. With Kolkata on 2 for 1 after three overs, Gayle broke free with a crash past point for four and a mow over midwicket for six. Then Adam Gilchrist pushed a fielder back to long-on, where Gayle promptly holed out next ball.

Sourav Ganguly had a short-lived and uncomfortable stay, beaten several times, and was unable to find the gap through the off side when he connected. Even fans protesting his removal from the captaincy can't defend the shot that brought about his dismissal - backing away and then stabbing at a wide, full delivery, only to nick it to slip.

Despite rain and a floodlight failure causing the game to be delayed by nearly an hour-and-a-half, the organisers decided to have the seven-and-a-half-minute interval after the tenth over. Aakash Chopra and Brad Hodge had dragged Kolkata to 31 for 3 by then, but also found Pragyan Ojha's left-arm spin a handful. Both Chopra and Laxmi Shukla perished giving Ojha the charge, only to be undone by the turn.

Hodge, the leading run-getter in Twenty20s, played a sensible hand. He entered in the fifth over and knocked around the singles before opening out in the 16th. Hodge slammed a couple of boundaries before slapping Scott Styris straight to Herschelle Gibbs at point. The tailenders threw their bat around but RP took two in three balls to deny Kolkata even the modest satisfaction of playing out their 20 overs.

A target of 102 was never going to be too big a challenge, especially as Kolkata had left out Ajantha Mendis on a pitch spinners have thrived on all weekend. Adam Gilchrist hit a couple of trademark boundaries before top-edging to square leg and VVS Laxman, after bludgeoning an out-of-character pull for six, was dismissed due to an old failing - poor running between the wickets.

That brought together Rohit and Gibbs, who knuckled down to work a few singles and steady the innings. Gibbs then started playing some inventive shots, a bent-knee sweep off Ganguly for four followed by a deft dab towards third man. Any pressure that Kolkata had built up vanished, and neither batsmen was afraid of lofting the ball after that.

Rohit joined in the fun once Ajit Agarkar was introduced, a huge six over long-off and a couple of boundaries helping take 17 runs off his first over. Some more merry hitting from the pair finished off the game with nearly seven overs to spare.

Kolkata had talked of a radical multiple-captain theory before the tournament, but they need to come up with some fresh ideas if they are improve on today's dreadful show.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo



Source: India news from Cricinfo

[LosingNow]

Hometown view..
--

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090420/jsp/sports/story_10846919.jsp#
Knights wilt on a wet night
- Clinical performance by Deccan Chargers 
A CORRESPONDENT
 
Don’t make the mistake of terming this an upset. Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t deserve to win as Deccan Chargers scripted their burial in clinical fashion on Sunday. They batted, bowled and fielded their much-fancied and flamboyant opponents out of the game winning by eight wickets with lots to spare.

Knight Riders have been the most talked about team in the lead up to the second edition of the Indian Premier League. Cricket manager John Buchanan’s multiple captains doctrine finally culminated in Brendon McCullum replacing Sourav Ganguly as captain but that hardly had any effect on the team’s dwindling fortunes.

Pitted against a side that finished at the bottom of the table last year, they failed miserably as Adam Gilchrist’s men dug Shah Rukh Khan’s Knights into a hole at Newlands Cricket Stadium.

Korbo, lorbo jeetbo re was a fading theme, and tonight it sounded hollow, if not farcical. The smile on the Bollywood badshah’s face had turned into a frown by the close.

After delays caused by rain and a floodlight failure, the match finally got under way nearly one-and-a-half hours behind schedule. McCullum, who provided a blistering start to the tournament in its inaugural year, elected to bat.

Deccan Chargers pacers, led by Fidel Edwards and Rudra Pratap Singh, made full use of the conditions as the batsmen failed to apply themselves. While the West Indies pacer was fast and furious besides being economical, RP made the batsmen pay dearly with his discipline.

The dismissals of the three big guns with only 16 runs on the board spelt Knight Riders’ doom. New captain McCullum began the slide, falling to RP’s first ball. As the New Zealand vice-captain tried to work it fine on the leg side, he ended up getting a tickle on the gloves as Gilchrist lapped it up.

Chris Gayle tried to get on top of the bowling with some lusty hitting. A boundary and six off consecutive deliveries off RP set the tone but the West Indies captain perished in his next attempt. RP pushed it much fuller and on a length, and as Gayle tried to clip it over mid-wicket, Harmeet Singh ran in from long-off to take a well-judged catch.

Unknown Punjab pacer Harmeet then ended Sourav’s 12-ball resistance. The deposed Knight Riders captain, who never looked in control, was tempted by a wide delivery. After having stretched himself to play it in the direction of cover, he managed only a thick edge to first slip.

Knight Riders never recovered from the early setbacks as they failed to last their full quota of overs. Brad Hodge was the highest scorer with 31 off 34 balls, including four boundaries. Only four of the batsmen reached double figures.

Amid the catastrophic batting, Hodge, the Twenty20 specialist, played a sensible innings. He worked the ball into the gaps and waited for the loose balls. Herschelle Gibbs took a smart catch at point to end his challenge.

Knight Riders did raise a glimmer of hope with the dismissals of Gilchrist and V.V.S. Laxman, but that only proved to be a blip on the radar. Gibbs (43 not out off 26 balls, 5x4, 1x6) and Rohit Sharma (36 not out off 32 balls, 3x4, 2x6) added 69 runs in an unbroken third wicket partnership that saw them home comfortably.

McCullum, however, dropped Rohit off Ajit Agarkar in the tenth over. But going by the trend of the match, that would have hardly made a difference to the outcome.

If the batsmen lacked application, the bowlers didn’t fare any better. Simply put, the team didn’t show the attitude and the determination needed to bounce back.

The absence of Ajantha Mendis in the Knight Riders team did raise quite a few eyebrows, especially after the success of Anil Kumble and Shane Warne on the opening day. McCullum certainly felt his absence in the middle stages of the Deccan Chargers innings.
 

[dextrous]

Bottomline (like I'd said after this year's auction) is that KKR were neither prepared nor did they care about winning as much as they did about PR and expanding the fan base. When instead of going all-out to get a quality batsman or bowler of any repute, they wasted an obscene amount of money on Mortaza, I'd my doubts regarding the team.

Further, the lack of quality domestic players in the team is almost baffling. It takes a captain like Ganguly to get a pedestrian bowler like Dinda and under-achiever like Agarkar to deliver. And McCullum, I doubt, is very familiar at all with any domestic players in the team.

And not just the squad selection but also the team selection is baffling. How could they drop Mendis today for some dude from Australia who neither bats nor bowls? Looking at how Agarkar was bowling today, one has to wonder why he was selected for this match; surely, Bose would've been a better option.

[gouravk]

i wish they lose all games equally badly. i officially am now more anti-KKR than anti-BRC

[inoc]

i wish they lose all games equally badly. i officially am now more anti-KKR than anti-BRC

this is probably the last hope KKR has - the fact that you hate them. BRC did ok in the first match.

[gouravk]

probably ... let us see ..