The Art of Losing

Normally, you’d back the bowling team to win when you need 82 runs from 6 overs. But not when it’s the Deccan Chargers.

espncricinfo.com Gurkeerat rose to the occasion

13th May 2012 had been the day that best represented what the Indian Premier League was all about. Two unknown players burst onto the scene with incredible match winnings performances when even the veterans in their team couldn’t. The first was Ajit Chandila who blew away Pune with his hattrick.

The other was Gurkeerat Singh. For a tall and lanky lad, he could certainly hit a few. That his innings came against Deccan Chargers didn’t take the shine off it one bit. DC had been a mess for a long time now, but to lose 5 matches in the last over was a patent lack of ability to close out games.

For most of the game, DC was in cruise control. Shikhar Dhawan carried his good form from the previous games to Mohali and Cameron White along with Dan Christian applied the finishing touches to the innings.

The trouble began with Amit Mishra’s over. Usually deceptive and accurate, somehow DC’s choking gene even got to him. Hussey robbed two sixes from him and 21 in the over and thus began the unravelling of their efforts till now.

The asking rate prior to Mishra’s over had been climbing past 13, but neither Hussey nor Chitnis were unfazed. The next over by Sudhindra almost did the trick, only for him to concede a six on the last ball. 50 needed from 24 meant that this was still DC’s game to lose, something they knew quite a lot about.

Steyn, in peak form, scalped two wickets to halt the King's comeback, but little did he know what Gurkeerat could do. For now, Hussey kept the party going. DC thought that he was the man who could take the game away from them- they couldn’t have been more wrong.

Hussey’s six early in the 18th put pressure on him, which was evident in the two other boundaries he conceded. Steyn came back to bowl the 19th despite having a poor track record at death and almost got away with a clean over.

A yorker went wrong turned into a low full-toss which just about reached the boundary to reduce the target to 16 from 6. Sangakkara was in a fix- having bowled his best bowlers out, he had to choose between Mishra’s leg-spin and Gony’s pace.

In the end, he chose Gony but came around to regretting it. Hussey could’ve gotten off the strike on the first ball itself but a misfield under pressure gave him two, but the next ball went for a single anyway. DC collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

And then, Gurkeerat smoked one for a six over deep midwicket. On the next ball, he went for a daft touch and got another four. With 2 runs from the next ball, victory was in sight. Gony bounced it in short and Gurkeerat sent into the fine leg boundary to close off a victory for KXIP in style. Deccan Chargers were truly the most consistent and inconsistent.