Herschelle Gibbs in action on Sunday

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.