When was the last time you read a scorecard that read 0,4,0,0,0,0 - yeah, that was primary school for me. Kochi staged a little back to school party, collapsing to 6/11 before finally manging to assemble some kind of backbone. By that stage, Ishant Sharma had the unlikely figures of 2/0/6/5 - that's five wickets for six runs, but that hardly matters. By that stage such luminaries as Jayawardene, Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullum had been and gone and Kochi were about to be bowled out for 74. Somehow, they managed to lose to a side that had only two batsmen in double figures, and failed to chase down Deccan's 129 by 55 runs.
The Chargers had struggled early, but managed to make 129 thanks to Sangakkara's 65 and Cameron White's supporting 31. It might have been so very different if Sreesanth hadn't overstepped in knocking over Sangakkara's off-stump in the fourth over when the Sri Lankan was only on 5. A question of inches, but a decisive one.
Jadeja and Perera eventually brought a stop to Kochi's trauma, but Dale Steyn came back to finish off the tail and leave Kochi well short of a seemingly mediocre tally. Sharma was named man of the match, but Sangakkara's performance may have been harshly judged - only White otherwise reached 30, and Sangakkara's catches put the top 3 Kochi batsmen back in the sheds. The important thing for Sangakkara and his Deccan teammates is that the win leaves them level with Kochi with three wins from seven and still well in contention to move on. Without Sangakkara and Sharma's efforts today, they'd be struggling to still be in contention.
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