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The Delhi Daredevils defeated the Kochi Tuskers by 38 runs on an erratic Kochi pitch in a match had everything: lethal pacers, wily spinners, low bounce, averted collapse and a Sehwag special! Needing 158 for victory, the Tuskers, who refused to learn from Delhi’s mistakes or take a leaf out of their book, were bundled out for 119 in 18.5 overs. Virender Sehwag’s captain’s knock in the face of a collapse will go down as one of the best IPL innings ever played, at least on a wicket that was a batsman’s nightmare.

The Delhi Daredevils in desperate need of a win, got the first step of the day right - winning the toss at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Saturday. The Daredevils opted to make first use of the pitch and made just one change to their side replacing the injured James Hopes with South African spinner Roelof van der Merwe. Kochi, going through a bit of a slump themselves made three changes to their side, bringing in Michael Klinger, B Akhil and Ramesh Powar. There was still no place in the team for VVS Laxman, while S Sreesanth was given an opportunity to experience the Nehru Stadium in all its glory.

Sreesanth, possibly the most erratic bowler in International cricket today, continued to make life hard for those in the prediction business by picking up two wickets in his very first over after a luckless performance against the Deccan Chargers last time out. Two of his deliveries that simply refused to bounce (the second one almost rolling on the ground) reduced Delhi to 4 for 2 at the end of two overs. Sehwag then steadied the ship, playing well while not straying too far away from his usual game with Venugopal Rao struggling at the other end. Rao’s dismissal in the seventh over (scoring 1 off 10 balls) by a Ravindra Jadeja delivery that did not turn came as a blessing in disguise for Delhi. In a surprise move by Jayawardene, Sreesanth completed his quoata by the end of the eighth over finishing with excellent figures of 4-1-10-2.

The confident Sehwag and a promising Yogesh Nagar proceeded to rebuid the innings with one batsman playing the anchor and the other the aggressor. No prizes for guessing which was which! Sehwag played some lovely shots enroute to his fifty (which he brought up with a typical waft into the stands) in 35 balls. The Delhi fans did not have much time to celebrate as Nagar, who was slow to start for a second run, was run out in the very same over for 22 off 30 balls. His contribution was more vital than it looked on paper. At this stage Delhi were at a more comfortable 94/4 after 14.4 overs, and some aggressive hitting from Sehwag took them to 123/4 in 17 overs.

Travis Birt took Vinay Kumar to the boundary twice the very next over, but the Kochi seamer came back to take the all important wicket of Virender Sehwag with his fifth delivery. Sehwag had scored an excellent 49 runs from his last 15 deliveries and finally fell for an awesome 80. Birt fell for 20 after a quick cameo in the penultimate over and the Delhi Daredevils reached 157/7 at the end of 20 overs. Apart from Sreesanth, Jadeja and RP Singh bowled economically, while Balachandra Akhil, Romesh Powar and Vinay Kumar all went for over ten an over. The erratic behaviour of the pitch throughout the first innings indicated that the Kochi batsmen would have their task cut out for them.

The pitch continued to offer very low bounce when the Tuskers came in to bat. The solution to this pitch was to show some application and see out the inital overs, ideally on the front foot, and that is exactly what the Tuskers failed to do. Debutant Klinger exited in the second over falling to a great Van der Merwe catch, where the Protea took the ball in both hands at a height of nearly ten feet. Irfan Pathan seemed to have great mastery of the surface as he removed Brendon McCullum and Parthiv Patel cheaply. Some wayward bowling from Umesh Yadav, bowling first change, helped Kochi stutter to 33 for 3 at the end of the powerplay. Jayawardene, who returned to his two down position, was the only player in the Kochi ranks who had experience batting long innings on this kind of a wicket.

Unlike Sehwag who played his natural game when the chips were down, Jayawardene turned over-cautious only to fall to Agarkar in the 10^th over scoring 18 off 28 balls. To nobody’s surprise the pitch stopped acting up after the tenth over, but Kochi had already lost their best players and Brad Hodge and Jadeja are not match winners with the bat. Brad Hodge fell (after impressing briefly) for 27 off 25 balls to Morne Morkel in the 13^th over and the match was as good as over already. The Tuskers’ lower middle order tried to make a contest out of it, but the Delhi bowlers continued to chip wickets away regularly.

Jadeja fell on the last ball of the 18^th over after putting up a feisty 31 off 22 balls. It looked like Kochi would play out the innings but a freak 19^th over by van der Merwe fetched the final three wickets in 5 balls as Delhi bowled Kochi out for 119. The entire Delhi bowling unit made merry but Pathan, Morkel and Agarkar were the pick of the bowlers for Delhi while the lone slow left-armer bowled tightly before cleaning house at the end. Delhi really needed this win and the comprehensive nature of their victory will boost the team’s spirit no end.

Delhi launched themselves to 7^th spot in the League table riding on this win while the Tusker’s slipped to the ninth position. Neither of these positions will give either team any satisfaction as this most closely fought of IPLs has the top four teams divided only by two points. Kochi have an instant opportunity for revenge as they head to Delhi for a rematch on Monday, the 2^nd of May.

Teams:

Kochi Tuskers Kerala: Brendom McCullum, Mahela Jayawardene, Ravindra Jadeja, Brad Hodge, Parthiv Patel, Michael Klinger, B Akhil, R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, R Powar, S Sreesanth.

Delhi Daredevils: David Warner, Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Y Venugopla Rao, Travis Birt, Naman Ojha, Roelof van der Merwe, Yogesh Nagar, Morne Morkel, Ajit Agarkar, Umesh Yadav.

Mini Scorecard

Delhi Daredevils 157/7 (20 overs, 7.85rpo)
V. Sehwag 80 (47)  S. Sreesanth 2/10
Y. Nagar 22 (30)  R. Jadeja  1/27

Kochi Tuskers Kerala 119 all out (18.5, 6.31rpo)
R. Jadeja 31 (22) M. Morkel 3/18
B. Hodge 27(25)  R. Van der Merwe 3/20