Deccan hope to arrest free-fall against Mumbai

Centurion:

Tumbling off the top slot after three successive defeats, Adam Gilchrist's Deccan Chargers will hope to arrest the free-fall when they take on revenge-thirsty Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League here on Tuesday.

Under Gilchrist, the Chargers looked clearly the most high-flying outfit this year with four wins on the row, including a 12-run victory against the Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians in the first leg that placed them right at the top of the table in the early stage.

Then came the twist in the tale and subsequently nothing would go right for the Hyderabad outfit which crashed to one defeat after another to move down the ladder.

Defeats against Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings saw them surrender pole position and slip to fourth place and Gilchrist would go into Wednesday's match believing he knows what it takes to beat the Mumbai side.

The job, however, would not be easy since Tendulkar himself is not really amused by the yo-yo form of his side.

The Mumbai Indians have not gathered any momentum in the tournament yet and for them, every win has invariably been followed by a defeat, pushing the side to sixth place with three wins from seven outings.

Of the three defeats so far, resting heavy on Tendulkar's shoulder would be the most recent once that came against Royal Challengers Bangalore, not really the mightiest of sides in the tournament.

Mumbai's sharp looking bowling unit overnight lost its zing and sting against Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa --both of whom were hitherto off-colour -- and the result was a thumping nine-wicket defeat with 11 balls to spare.

They, however, would go into tomorrow's match with a point to prove. In case the desire to bounce back is not enough motivation, Mumbai Indians would look forward to settle score with the rivals who won their first round battle in Durban.

At the same time, an interesting sideshow of Wednesday's match would pit Twenty20 cricket's two most exciting opening pairs against each other.

As was on display throughout the tournament, veterans Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya thrive in each other's company and have spoilt the figures of many a bowler while setting the tone for the match.

Similarly, Gilchrist seemed to have found a perfect foil in Herschelle Gibbs and the duo often took off in such a ferocious pace that their rivals were left to do the catching up job for the rest of the match.

Mumbai would expect JP Duminy to maintain his good run in the middle and seek those lusty blows from Abhishek Nayar, while Deccans would hope Rohit Sharma to sizzle against some of his Ranji teammates in the Mumbai side.