Hyderabad reach spoiling point

Even after their confidence-sapping last-ball loss to Chennai at the Ferozeshah Kotla last Thursday, Sehwag had retained his sense of humour. “The last over,” he chuckled, when asked what the turning point of the match was.

Sehwag’s never been known to get bogged down by a couple of blips, but if they fail to beat the Deccan Chargers tomorrow, you can expect that smile to be wiped off his face. The Daredevils have now lost four games on the trot, and are definitely slipping in their quest for what at one point seemed like a sure-shot spot in the last four.

Perfect spoilers

Bangalore’s woes have been in the spotlight, thanks in no small measure to owner Vijay Mallya — who first sacked CEO Charu Sharma and followed up by slagging captain Rahul Dravid off in the press. Hyderabad, on the other hand, after hogging the limelight in the auction, have been low-profile in their failures.

Unlike Bangalore, their problem hasn’t been the lack of ammunition. They made all the right buys: firepower in the form of Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Shahid Afridi; parsimony in the form of Chaminda Vaas and RP Singh — at least this wasn’t a ‘Test’ team.

Nine matches into the tournament, it hasn’t turned out to be too much of a T20 side either, but now that they’re almost out of contention for a semi-final spot, the would-be kings of the IPL are ready to ease themselves into the role of spoilers —ready to ruin the chances of several other teams by pulling off a couple of surprises.

They have what it takes to win, and they have nothing to lose. In most cases, that’s a rather potent combination.

Going solo

It’s difficult to zero in on Hyderabad’s blues. In a format that is reduced to an exhibition of the broadest bats in cricket, two of the top three run-getters in the tournament — Adam Gilchrist with 308...