A day after our disappointing loss to the Rajasthan Royals, a group of us from the Deccan Chargers team went to visit the famous Ajmer Sharif dargah near Jaipur. People in the shrine came up to us to ask us about our bad results and wish us luck. Just halfway into the tournament, it is astonishing where you will find the IPL and where it will find you.
I'm terribly frustrated to be sitting out right now due to a wrist injury just when I'd begun to get some rhythm into my batting in my last three innings. As a batsman, you have to remember to play your own game in the IPL, not try to change your style. In the first few matches, I'd unconsciously found myself trying to hit the ball too hard. Just when I thought I was settling into some kind of flow, I got injured. We have tried to get the batting group clicking together, with at least two or three people performing at the same time. We've tended to have a big batting performance from one player with no support acts. It's cost us.
From now on, we certainly want to win every match we play and we have the team to do that. But you have to remember to keep your attention on smaller targets, to break the play up into smaller goals and then make sure you get those first. It's not rocket science to know that you need to keep wickets in hand in the first ten overs, but if you can do that as a batting team over and over again, you will win more than you lose.
It's been demoralizing to lose as much as we have but leaving that aside, a few things that have come out of the IPL are hugely encouraging. The quality exposure that India's
young players have got is invaluable. The IPL matches actually feel like international cricket: not just because of the crowds and the entire atmosphere, but because the standard and quality of the cricket has been very high.
What I've particularly enjoyed is the interaction between the young Indians and the internationals. It's been great to talk to the younger guys, learn a little them; we have an amazing story in our dressing room. Our medium pacer P Vijaykumar used to be a daily wage labourer who lived a really hard life not so long ago. He was spotted, given an opportunity in cricket with Andhra and three years later he's keeping the company of THE WORLD'S LEADING CRICKETERS.
It is great exposure for the lads to spend time with world-class pros, to see how they prepare and how they approach the game. All the senior guys have made it a point to take the initiative with them, to go up and talk to them, make them feel comfortable interacting with us. After initial hesitation, we haven't been able to stop the questions. We have a young keeper from Orissa Halhadar Das, who's been learning drills from Gilly; Pragjyan Ojha is cross questioning Scott Styris about how Danny Vettori goes about his business and I've answered the odd question or two about my mindset when playing the Australians.
After our narrow three-run loss to in Bangalore, the franchise owners came in and commiserated with us. They understood that we'd had some narrow losses and that
cricket could be cruel. Of course we know they are not happy with the results, no one likes losing. It is gratifying to know that Deccan Chargers has the management's support but it also means that the personal responsibility on every player to live up to that support and the expectations from our city Hyderabad - is so much greater.
HAWKEYE COMMUNICATIONS / CHIVACH SPORTS