TheSportsCampus

< Prev		Next >

A nervy Delhi side choked after having started well in their chase of 172 and finally fell short by 10 runs despite a valiant half-century by Dave Warner and a rearguard 46 by stand-in skipper Dinesh Karthik. The Deccan Chargers had earlier posted a competitive 171 on the board thanks to a late surge by Rohit Sharma who scored a quick-fire 45.

Adam Gilchrist opted to make first use of a slowish Cuttack track after winning the toss. Both sides made three changes apiece with Delhi dropping the out of form Tillakaratne Dilshan, and local lads Pradeep Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia, for Moises Henriques. Leggie Sarabjit Ladda and Yogesh Nagar. For the Deccan Chargers, Monish Mishra replaced the injured VVS Laxman, who was struck on his wrist during the last game, while another leg-spinner Rahul Sharma got the nod ahead of Jaskaran Singh. Venugopal Rao also got his first look-in of the season as he replaced Anirudh Singh.

In a move to unsettle the Chargers, Karthik threw the ball to Amit Mishra to open the bowling. Bowling to the other Mishra, the leg-spinner almost had his man when Monish was struck on the pads in front of the stumps off the second ball, before another googly crashed into his stumps a couple of deliveries later. Herschelle Gibbs walked in one down and immediately went after the bowling greeting the usually economical Dirk Nannes with a six and two boundaries in his first over.

Karthik then decided to continue with spin and though Mishra was economical in his first spell, Gilchrist and Gibbs continued to take runs off the lesser known spinners. Yogesh Nagar was taken for consecutive boundaries by the Chargers skipper before a huge slog sweep off Sarabjit Ladda got him a six. Ladda though got his revenge in the same over as Gilchrist misread a flighted delivery to offer a simple catch to Karthik behind the stumps.

Gibbs motored along with Andrew Symonds for company, though after one more six off Nannes; the South African fell for 31 while attempting a square cut off Nagar. Symonds' was a similar knock; after looking solid against both spinners Ladda and Nagar (both of whom he dispatched for sixes) he ended up giving an easy catch to AB de Villiers at short cover. With the score reading 103/4 and with none of the in-form batsmen carrying on with their good starts things looked bleak for Deccan when T Suman walked out to join Rohit Sharma.

Suman began beautifully, backing away of a short delivery to send Henriques to the ropes before getting another one as Nannes strayed onto the pads and then again pulling Henriques for a four. Sharma, subdued all this while came into his element in the 17th over; getting a six and a four off Umesh Yadav before tonking Henriques for two huge sixes in the next over. By the time Sharma fell to Nannes in the penultimate over for 45, the Chargers had reached 163/5 and with 63 coming off the last 6 overs, the late charge eventually got Gilchrist's men to 171.

Chasing a run rate of just over 8.50 rpo, Delhi needed a strong showing from their top-order and Dave Warner's blitzkrieg gave them just that. Quiet off the first three balls of the opening over from Chaminda Vaas, Warner managed two cheeky boundaries of the next two deliveries before unleashing himself in RP Singh's next over. He crashed the first delivery over long-on for a six before slicing the second over long-off for a boundary. The fourth went over point for a flat six and the fifth was again sent packing over to the long-on boundary. At the end of two overs, Delhi had amassed 29 runs with Virender Sehwag standing at the non-strikers end without having opened his account. Rarely does his opening partner manage to overshadow Sehwag and today was one of those days. Having been deprived of most of the strike, Sehwag fell soon after trying to hit Pragyan Ojha inside-out over the covers.

AB de Villiers got a boundary off the first ball he faced of Vaas but failed to rotate the strike thereafter. Warner faced only two balls in the next two overs and though he clubbed Rahul Sharma for a first-ball six the momentum of the chase had dropped considerably.

Warner reached his fifty (off 25 balls) off the first ball after the time-out, striking Ojha for a six. The decisive moment in the game though, came in Ojha's next over as Warner's beautiful innings was cut short by a silly run-out. De Villiers glided Ojha to short third man and the batsmen took off for a suicidal single with the fielder easily throwing down the stumps to give Deccan a crucial breakthrough. De Villiers himself fell two overs later, completely missing a dipping delivery from Rahul Sharma which crashed into his shoes and then to the base of the off-stump, and Delhi went into the strategic time-out at 105/3 off 14 overs.

Mithun Manhas slogged a boundary off Rahul Sharma soon after the break but Sharma came right back as Manhas skied one to be caught by Suman. Henriques got two quick boundaries but after he fell to Symonds, skipper Karthik decided to cut loose.

Having been dropped off Symonds in an earlier over, Karthik went after Rahul Sharma as the run rate started mounting and pulled beautifully for a four and a six before placing another boundary over point. With 20 needed off the last two overs, Karthik seemed to be in control as he cracked another boundary off Symonds' next over. To his dismay though, Symonds took a blinder of a catch on the next ball and Karthik was sent packing.

With their skipper gone, the Delhi batting combusted and the next six balls saw three wickets fall as the Daredevils spiraled towards their third consecutive defeat. Delhi finally fell short by 10 runs as the Chargers romped home to three wins in a row and are now just behind Bangalore in the points table. The Daredevils are looking rudderless without their first-choice captain Gautam Gambhir and would hope for his quick return as they next face the in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Mini Scorecard:

Deccan Chargers 171/6 (20 Overs, 8.55 rpo)
Rohit Sharma 45                   Amit Mishra 1/12
Andrew Symonds 35

Delhi Daredevils 161/9 (20 Overs, 8.05 rpo)
Dave Warner 57                 Chaminda Vaas 1/21
Dinesh Karthik 46              Rahul Sharma 2/42

Also Read:

Match Preview - Mumbai Indians vs. Kolkata Knight Riders

File Photograph Copyright: BwanaRSA

This article is the exclusive copyright of TheSportsCampus.com and permission to reproduce the same has not been granted