Thaindian News

Hyderabad, May 25 (IANS) With both teams already out of the contention for a semifinal spot in Indian Premier League (IPL), few fans turned up to see the home team Deccan Chargers take on Royal Challengers Bangalore here Sunday. The match was inconsequential as the two teams are at the bottom of the points table. The only point to be proven was who among them is better as they played to avoid the ignominy of finishing at the last spot.

There were no cheers and applause from the sparse crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium and even the cheerleaders failed to lift their spirits.

Hardly 20 percent of the 40,000 seats were occupied when the match began at 4 p.m. The turnout improved slightly as the match progressed but more than half the stadium remained empty. It was the poorest crowd response in the tournament so far.

Despite it being a Sunday, the majority of the fans stayed away. The home crowd had reasons to be disappointed.

Chargers is the only team in the tournament which is yet to register a win at its home ground. Their two wins in 12 matches came in Bangalore and Chennai.

Despite the presence of several stars like Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi, Chargers have failed to make any impression and face the threat of ending at the bottom of the points table.

Amid the gloom, Gilchrist, Gibbs and Venugopala Rao played a few big shots, giving their fans some reason to cheer.

Interestingly, Chargers have so far hit 89 sixes, the most by any team in the tournament.