Delhidaredevils

AB de Villieres, the South African playing for Delhi Daredevils pointed that Chennai Super Kings, enjoyed some luck in winning all their four games in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.

With Bangalore Royal Challengers the other night Dravid was given out when he was not so. In the other three matches too it was only in the 18th or 19.3 overs they could breathe relief. Added to this is they have lost three key players while Delhi Dare devils has a very young team mostly Indian players rated as the best fielding side in the IPL. They have a very strong bowler in Glenn McGrath.

If Sehwag wicket never falls early then you could see a total to about 220 plus. His batting is a real treat to watch.

Chennai Super Kings team has in them fast bowler Makhaya Ntini and all-rounder Albie Morkel and of course Muttaih Muralidharan. In the last game Murali's absense was felt since the other bowlers were giving runs freely. Delhi would be lucky if Murali is dropped and Dhoni is fond boy of not having Chennai related players in his team.

McGrath, Mohd Asif (of Pakistan), Fervez Maharoof all could pose a great challenge to CSK batting line up.

Chennai Super Kings are tilted to be favourites as already said LUCK is on Dhoni's side. Somehow in the end they are coming out good. But in real Delhi Daredevils seems to be stronger then CSK.

Thank you, Come back after the match for the complete match round-up.

Chennai, May 2:

Skipper Sehwag's wicket could not be got early and the Chennai crowd had a treat to watch his batting stints. The match was pocketed by Sehwag under the first 5 overs itself. By 10th and 15th it became clear who was going to win the match. The local people of Chennai had nothing to cheer except some good bowling from Muttiah Muralidharan. The crowds cheered his bowling, but he could not get the wickets of the openers and was only able to contain their aggression fully. He introduced variety in his bowling to take wickets but the batsmen were alert and cautious and thus deprived him of it.

Skipper Virender Sehwag (71, 41b, 4 x 6, 7 x 4) and Gautam Gambhir (50, 37b 5 x 4, 1 x 6) put on 115 runs for the first wicket as Daredevils overhauled Super Kings' total of 169 for six with one over to spare.

The result meant a three-way tie at the top as the Super Kings, Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals are on eight points after five matches with four wins and one loss.

There was no stopping Sehwag as he unleased a series of strokes mostly sixes in the very early part of bowling and the bowlers withered. The absense of Palani Amarnathan's bowling was very much felt. Gambhir too batted well as they blasted through the Super Kings bowling with ease with shots all around the park.

Manpreet Gony, bowling the second over of the innings, went for 17 runs and later, Joginder Sharma was smashed for 19 as Daredevils hurried their way to victory.

The only reprieve the Super Kings enjoyed were the dismissals of Sehwag in the 12th over and then the wicket of Gambhir in the 15th, but by then the game was in the pocket of Delhi Dare Devils. The Super Kings bowlers were at their wit's end trying to contain Sehwag and Gambhir, but on the day, the two openers were in superb form.

After their departure, AB de Villiers and Shikar Dhawan batted sensibly to bring Daredevils home at the end of the 19th over.

Earlier, batting first on a benign track, the Super Kings innings was more a stop-go affair after the early dismissal of Stephen Fleming who was knocked over by Yo Mahesh in the day's third over.

In fact, Mahesh clean bowled Fleming off the very first delivery that was declared no-ball, and then went for a boundary before castling the former Kiwi captain for just 13 runs.

At the other end, Parthiv Patel was far from convincing, twice offering half-chances before falling prey to Sehwag who struck with his very first delivery as the batsman tried to swing him out of the ground.

Young debutant Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni then tried to steady the innings. They clobbered Sehwag for 16 runs to ease the pressure, but the Daredevils regrouped to yet again keep the batsmen in check.

While Vidyut played a few pleasing shots, as soon as Dhoni joined him his innings too slowed a bit. Dhini was unable to collar the bowling in his customary style. He played like a batsman playing in test cricket. Dhoni for once had forgotten that he is playing ipltwenty20 match. In fact, the first 10 overs produced just 82 runs.

Vidyut went on to complete his maiden T20 half-century, but was soon dismissed by Glenn McGrath, bowling his second spell when the southpaw attempted a heave over the straight field to be caught by Yo Mahesh.

After his departure the run rate slowed down and as Dhoni and Suresh Raina left in quick succession before Albie Morkel hit some sixes to bring respect to the total though his batting too had glitches in it.

Morkel, after making a 16-ball 28, holed out off the penultimate ball of the innings. Earlier he had wasted one full over without scoring. Badrinath coming in the flag end of the innings could do nothing but to swing Rajat Bhatia for a six over square-leg as the Super Kings put up a total that not enough to this form of cricket. The end result showed it to be.

SCORE-BOARD

Chennai Super Kings innings:

Parthiv Patel c Yo Mahesh b Sehwag 21 (20b, 3 x 4)

Stephen Fleming b Yo Mahesh 13 (13b, 2 x 4)

Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan c Yo Mahesh b McGrath 54 (37b, 7 x 4, 1 x 6)

M S Dhoni c Malik b Asif 32 (27b, 2 x 4, 1 x 6)

Albie Morkel c Sehwag b Bhatia 28 (16b, 3 x 4, 2 x 6)

Suresh Raina (runout - Sangwan) 3 (4b)

S Badrinath (not out) 11 (5b, 1 x 6)

Joginder Sharma (not out) 0 (0b)

Extras (nb-2, w-5): 7

Total (for 6 wkts, 20 overs): 169

Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Fleming, 3.2), 2-65 (8.1, Patel), 3-122 (Vidyut, 14.5), 4- (Dhoni, 18.

Bowling: Glenn McGrath 4-0-21-1; Mohammad Asif 4-0-34-1 (1w); Yo Mahesh 4-0-31-1 (2nb); Pradeep Sangwan 4-0-40-0 (2w); Shoaib Malik 1-0-11-0 (2w); Virender Sehwag 2-0-21-1; Rajat Bhatia 1-0-11-1.

Delhi Daredevils innings:

Gautam Gambhir b Gony 50 (37b, 1 x 6, 5 x 4)

Virender Sehwag c Muralitharan b Sharma 71 (41b, 4 x 6, 7 x 4)

AB de Villiers (not out) 26 (21b, 2 x 4)

Shikar Dhawan (not out) 19 (17b, 2 x 4)

Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-2, w-2): 6

Total (for 2 wkts, 19 overs): 172

Fall of wickets: 1-115 (Sehwag 11.2), 2-139 (Gambhir, 14.3).

Bowling: Makhaya Ntini 4-0-29-0; Manpreet Gony 4-0-39-1 (1w); Albie Morkel 4-0-40-0 (1w); Joginder Sharma 3-0-35-1 (1w); Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-27-0 (1nb).

Delhi Dare Devils Vs Kings XI Punjab

NEW DELHI:

Mahela Jayawardene (36) and Luke Pomersbach (25) helped Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by six runs via Duckworth-Lewis system in a weather-truncated Indian Premier League tie here on Saturday.

Chasing a revised target of 123 in 11 overs, the Punjab side batted braving light drizzle early in their innings and eventually finished at 94 for three in eight overs when play was suspended with the visitors six runs ahead of the hosts.

Jayawardene's 17-ball 36 included three sixes and two fours, while Pomersbach's 25 came off 12 balls.

Earlier, Sehwag slammed an unbeaten half century as Delhi Daredevils finished on 118 for four in 11 overs. Sehwag's brief violent knock included two fours and five sixes, while Gautam Gambhir chipped in with a 28-ball 40.

Punjab batted just eight overs to Delhi's 11 in this match full of twists and turns, and stops and starts. They were 94-3 at the time of rain interruption, having hit a six off the last ball from Rajat Bhatia.

Had Bhatia bowled a dot to Mahela Jayawardene off that ball, the scores would have been tied at the time of interruption and it's anybody's guess what would have happened in the match then.

Punjab's target had already being revised to 123, after Delhi made 118 having chosen to bat.

Rain stopped play with Delhi 94-1 in 8.1 overs. By the time play resumed, the game was been reduced to 11-overs a side. Sehwag, batting on 47 off 19 balls, played another seven balls to add just four runs which almost cost the match for Delhi Daredevils in the final analysis. He batted through, taking Delhi to 118-5.

Punjab were reduced to 31-3, thanks to three terrific catches in outfield by Delhi. Here, Sehwag decision to bring himself to bowl boomeranged Jayawardene hit Sehwag for three fours and a six in the over that cost 22. Punjab pressed home there on.

With rain in the air again, Delhi needed to get Punjab down to three runs in Bhatia's over to tie the game. Bhatia bowled a tight over, giving away just three in the first five balls. But the last ball was hit over midwicket by Jayawardene to give a win for Punjab team.

Sehwag played wrong in batting first and then coming himself to bowl, from then on everything went against him. Bad Luck Dude.

From hereon Delhi Dare Devils have to win all the other three matches to reach the final, i.e., Bangalore team, Kolkata team and Mumbai team which under the strengths of the team is very much possible, unless bad luck once again takes over on DD.

19th May 2008

Delhi Daredevils Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Luck has been evading Sehwag. As on paper both Hyderabad team and Delhi team look the most strongest. Hyderabad team failed miserably and Delhi team has run into bad luck, either the umpire or the weather had been unfavourable to them.

Delhi Daredevils are clear favourites in today's match. And from hereon they have to win all the three matches including one match against Mumbai team to oust them from being their main contender.