Wed, 27 Apr 2011 - IP Kochi vs IP Hyderabad, IPL 2011, 32nd Match - Bulletin

Ishant’s fifer blows Kochi away

In t-20 cricket a fiery fast bowling spell is a rarity. Much to the disappointed of Kochi fans, who had come in numbers to cheer for the home team, were treated with one of the best fast bowling performances in the slam bang format of cricket.

The dream and exceptional spell of fast bowling came from none other than Hyderabad fast bowler Ishant Sharma which blew Kochi away and handed a 55 run defeat to the home team while chasing 130. Ishant five wickets came off his first two overs after dale Steyn had removed Brendon McCullum in the first over.

Sharma was getting the ball to move and bounce from a teasing length to crush Kochi top order who simply had no answer to Ishant blitz with the ball. He started his dream spell having Parthiv Patel caught behind following it with a fury of menacing in-dippers trapping batsmen in the crease. Raiphi Gomez was clean bowled so was Brad Hodge and Kedar Jadhav was caught plumb infront of wickets with all three departing without troubling the scorers. Then, the big wicket of Kochi skipper Mahela Jayawardene perhaps with the best ball by getting one to move away from the right hander to graze an outside on way to Sangakkara behind the wickets. Kochi’s score read 11 for 6 and Ishant had figures of five for six in two overs.

Other fast bowlers were not left behind as all of them got ball to move both ways and got some into rib-cage of the batsmen giving an impression as if test match was going on with bowlers having all the say. There was some fightback put by seventh wicket partnership of 36 between Ruvindu Jadeja and Thissara Perrera but Hyderabad had many resources to halt any Kochi resurgence.

Manpreet Singh Gony and leg spinner Amit Mishra took a wicket each in the middle overs while Steyn came back to finish the tail with two wickets on consecutive deliveries to fold Kochi for 74 and finish with figures of 3 for 16.

Earlier, bulk of the Hyderabad’s runs was scored by skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Cameron White to play a vital role in taking score to 129. The duo put on crucial 90 runs for the fourth wickets before succumbing to fast bowler Vinay Kumar off successive deliveries in the 17th over in pursuit of scoring quick runs.

With pitch having plenty to offer for the fast bowlers, Kochi decided to bowl first and his fast bowlers didn’t disappoint him bowling in good areas all the time. Left arm pacer RP Singh was brilliant with the new ball removing both the openers with his in-swinging deliveries and Vinay added to Hyderabad woes removing Bharat Chipli to reduce visitors to 20 for 3 in six overs.

This is the lowest score posted in first six overs this season and things would have more depressing for Hyderabad had local boy S Sreesanth didn’t over-step when he bowled a peach of delivery to have Sangakkara clean bowled. All the accuracy and movement was undone by Sreesanth’s over-stepping.

It was all Hyderabad skipper needed as he alongwith White weathered early storm and dig deep knocking bowlers around to take the team out of mire. Once both were set, big shots came thick and fast with skipper favoring one-side to hit some classy Sangakkara boundaries.

Most of the Sangakkara’s ten fours came when left hander moved across to off-stump to hit through vacant areas in leg-side. Sangakkara’s 47-ball stay for his 65 included some edgy moment s but he used all his experience to help team to a competitive total.

White who struggled early in his innings did hit some lusty blows in the later stages of his 34-ball stay and became Vinay’s second victim when he tried to hit one out of ground only to be holed in the deep. Next ball, Vinay claimed a big victim having Sangakkara caught behind to peg Hyderabad back.

Despite wickets in hand, Hyderabad lower order couldn’t pose a late order challenge with only 19 runs scored off last 3 overs.

For Kochi, all the seamers were effective with Singh and Vinay turning out to be most impressive getting the ball to move around from good areas.