And so it’s Delhi Daredevils who finish at the bottom of the pile. A heavy downpour forced the game to be abandoned after Delhi struggled through to reach 56 for 3 from 10.1 overs against Pune Warriors.

Delhi just lurched along aimlessly before the rain saved them from further embarrassment. David Warner offered brief respite to the Delhi fans with a pulled six off Alfonso Thomas and a six over long-on against IPL debutant James Faulkner. That was it, for it was Pune who controlled the game. Pune, in their first IPL season, finished ninth in the table, ahead of Delhi on net run-rate.

Faulkner had a good night bowling his left arm seamers; he delivered a lovely slower yorker – released out from back of the hand – to knock out Warner and bowled a couple of jaffas that kicked up from a length at Matthew Wade. Another IPL debutant Shrikant Mundhe struck in his first over to end the misery of Naman Ojha, who had missed more than he connected; and Mitchell Marsh produced a yorker to terminate Wade’s limp innings. Then the clouds opened up. Game over.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

The scorecard will say Paul Valthaty hammered 62 to power Punjab to an eventually match-winning 170, but that’s not even half the story. Through 50 balls of clueless flailing, Valthaty put on a display completely out of place in the beautiful setting that is Dharamsala. Delhi Daredevils matched his ordinariness with a shoddy show on the field, followed by the sort of batting display that can be expected from a one-man team, when that one man is missing. Punjab’s bowlers, led by a resurgent Piyush Chawla, capitalised on Delhi’s woes to run to their third win on the trot, keeping their late-blooming campaign alive.

By all counts it was an average game of cricket, and the tone for the ordinariness was set right at the start. There was swing for Irfan Pathan, but not enough pace. There were swings of Adam Gilchrist’s bat, but not too many connections. At the other end, Morne Morkel’s other-worldly bounce systematically exposed Valthaty’s limitations. The pressure was on Punjab and the chances promptly followed, but Delhi graciously fluffed them. Yogesh Nagar and Irfan combined to mess up a straightforward run-out opportunity, before Venugopal Rao dropped a chance at slip. Delhi’s generosity was duly reciprocated by Punjab, as Gilchrist gifted his wicket soon after the botched run-out. It was like watching two football sides trying to outdo each other in an own-goal contest.

Shaun Marsh’s advent sought to bring sanity to the proceedings – he began by charming Aavishkar Salvi over mid-on, before shredding him through point – but Valthaty’s methods continued to spoil the scenery. Initially he attempted on-the-up thumps, regardless of length, and often missed by ridiculously large margins. He later tried to counter the bounce with cuts, but rarely made contact. He then resorted to the pull, and it was soon evident why he doesn’t play that shot too often. On the one occasion when he managed to middle the ball, Varun Aaron at fine-leg ran in too far, and the ball sailed over the boundary.

Valthaty eventually found his match against James Hopes’ trundle and ignited the innings with two violent sixes over the leg-side and an edged four through third man. Bowling listless lengths to Valthaty wasn’t Hopes’ biggest mistake of the innings though. He brought on S Sriram’s nondescript left-arm spin in the 13th over and Marsh indulged himself to some slog-sweeping violence. The over bled 25, including three big sixes over the leg side, as Punjab galloped from 70 for 1 in ten overs to 115 for 1 in 13.

Delhi managed to contain the damage in the remaining overs, through Aaron’s pace, and Irfan’s surprising rediscovery of old-ball swing. Marsh and Valthaty perished to Irfan’s stock indippers off successive balls in the 15th over. Delhi could have taken control in the next over, but Naman Ojha grassed a chance to let off Dinesh Karthik, allowing Punjab to motor along to 170.

Delhi’s chase followed a now-familiar template: David Warner’s shocking loss of form – he had cobbled up 47 runs in his last six innings before the game – and Virender Sehwag’s absence meant the innings lost steam quickly. Along with Naman Ojha, Warner played out ten successive dot balls early on, in the process giving Praveen Kumar his fourth maiden of the season. Ojha eventually found release by clouting Shalabh Srivastava for two sixes and a four in the sixth over, but it proved to be a false dawn. Ojha guided Srivastava behind in the eighth over for a run-a-ball 28, before Warner miscued the same bowler for a run-a-ball 29. Run-a-balls were not going to be enough.

Chawla has endured a rough time recently: he struggled for impact in the World Cup and his place in the team became a national debate; his struggles continued in the IPL, and he’s been left out for the West Indies ODIs. On Sunday, he finally came into his own with a sprightly spell, in which he refrained from his old failing of over-doing the googly. He accounted for Sriram, Rao and Hopes in successive overs, as Delhi went down with the setting sun in Dharamsala.

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings cruised to the top of points table by inflicting an 18-run defeat over Delhi Daredevils in their IPL match at MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Thursday.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Dwayne Bravo took two wickets each after fifties by Subramaniam Badrinath and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as Chennai won the match comfortably.

Chasing a stiff victory target of 177 runs, Delhi managed to score 158/6 in 20 overs with Irfan Pathan top scoring for the visitors with an unbeaten 34-ball 44 that came with the help of 2 sixes and 3 fours.

Bravo took his second wicket when Michael Hussey took a good catch running in from long-off to dismiss Delhi captain James Hopes.

Delhi lost their fourth wicket when Ravichandran Ashwin clean bowled Venugopal Rao to reduce the hosts to 107/4.

Bravo struck in his first over when he had David Warner caught by Murali Vijay at deep mid-wicket as Daredevils lost their third wicket in pursuit of 177.

Warner hit 2 fours in his 25-ball 21 before falling to Bravo.

Bravo took a superb catch at backward point to dismiss Colin Ingram off Ravichandran Ashwin as Delhi lost their second wicket.

Ingram scored 7 before falling to Ashwin.

Delhi lost their first wicket when Albie Morkel had Naman Ojha caught by Shadab Jakati at mid-off.

Ojha hit 2 sixes and 3 fours in his 14-ball 25 before falling to Morkel.

Earlier, Subramaniam Badrinath and Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed fifties to power Chennai Super Kings to 176/4.

Dhoni’s unbeaten 31-ball 63 was studded with 4 sixes and 5 fours.

Badrinath reached his half-century off 41 balls and Dhoni reached his fifty off 28 deliveries.

Badrinath hit a six and 6 fours in his 43-ball 55 before he was run out.

Murali Vijay hit a 33-ball 35 before Ajit Agarkar had him caught by Venugopal Rao at deep mid-wicket off a full toss.

Vijay hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in his knock before falling to Agarkar.

Varun Aaron had Suresh Raina caught by Irfan Pathan at fine-leg as Chennai lost their second wicket.

Raina hit a six and a four in his 10-ball 14 before mistiming a short ball from Aaron that resulted in his dismissal.

Irfan Pathan gave Delhi an early breakthrough when he trapped Michael Hussey plumb in front of the wicket in the first over.

The breakthrough came after Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat.

Chennai are unchanged from the last match while Delhi have brought in Andrew McDonald and Varun Aaron in place of Morne Morkel and the injured Virender Sehwag.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel, Subramaniam Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Shadab Jakati.

Delhi Daredevils: James Hopes (Capt.), David Warner, Naman Ojha, Yogesh Nagar, Venugopal Rao, Colin Ingram, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Andrew McDonald, Varun Aaron.

Source: Times of India

Mumbai Indians played like the dominant side they have been this IPL, and Delhi Daredevils like the middling one they have been. Consequently Mumbai took another step towards qualification for the next round, Delhi towards elimination.

Except for a period of four overs where Mumbai lost two wickets for 17 runs, they bossed the whole game. Aiden Blizzard teased headline writers with seven boundaries off Morne Morkel’s first two overs, and then Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma absorbed the shock of two quick wickets to follow it up with an assault that got Mumbai 67 off the last six overs.

On a flat and quick pitch, with short boundaries, 178 was still not beyond Virender Sehwag and David Warner. Not against Mumbai, though, whose big three with the ball – Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel – killed the game in three overs. Harbhajan got Warner with a straighter one, Colin Ingram had no clue about a Malinga yorker, and Munaf got a top edge from Sehwag first ball. It left Delhi too steep a climb, although an 87-run stand between half-centurion James Hopes and Venugopal Rao meant sure all time-outs were utilised.

The first innings had got off to a similarly emphatic start for Mumbai. Blizzard took to the pace and the regulation length from Morkel, who has troubled a few Indian batsmen with pace and bounce. To Blizzard, though the faster they came, the faster they went. One of the seven boundaries was a cut from in front of leg stump. A defeated Morkel found time for a bemused smile even as the total reached 50 in five overs.

Irfan Pathan, though, found swing, and with a wicket-maiden brought Delhi back. Shahbaz Nadeem added to Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket when he removed Blizzard with one that skidded on. This was a time when things could have easily gone wrong for Mumbai, but Rayudu and Rohit batted sensibly. It was Rayudu who took lead in both rebuilding and in attacking once he was in.

Rayudu began pushing Delhi out of the contest in the 10th over when he targeted James Hopes. He moved across the stumps, and waited with a high back lift. He got a length ball from Hopes, and pulled it over short fine leg. It didn’t make for pleasant viewing, but Rayudu immediately balanced it aesthetically with a proper drive through extra cover next over. Two overs later, Ajit Agarkar served him a leg-stump half-volley, which Rayudu flicked out of Agarkar’s home ground.

Rayudu’s hitting rubbed onto Rohit, who lofted Morkel and Hopes for lovely straight sixes. Morkel found a semblance of redemption with Rohit’s wicket in the 17th over, Agarkar with a last over to Kieron Pollard and Andrew Symonds that went for just five. In between, though, Rayudu punished Delhi some more. He didn’t go hell for leather, instead he placed his shots well and hit Nadeem and Hopes for a six and three fours. From 30 off 26 he had gone to 59 off 39. Malinga, Harbhajan and Munaf soon told him he had done enough.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Virender Sehwag scored a sensational ton as Delhi Daredevils established a thumping 4-wicket win over Deccan Chargers in their IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.

A single-handed virtuoso performance from Sehwag has handed his side an improbable win.

One of the most devastating hundreds that one will ever see in the game of cricket. Though he was dropped twice, it was some sight to see Viru tear the opposition apart. The crowd’s roar when Sehwag got to his 100 showed how great an innings it was.

After the end of 7 overs Daredevils were 32/3 and looked down and out, but, single over of Ishan Malhotra turned the game on it’s head. Sehwag looted 23 off it and from then on it was just carnage all around.

Sehwag who played one of the best IPL innings a few games ago at Kochi, just bettered himself.

The white ball soared repeatedly over the fence as the supporters of the home side were sent into gasping bouts of amazement.

Virender Sehwag became the 6th Indian to score a century in the IPL. It was the 4th individual hundred of IPL 4 and 16th in the IPL history so far.

Ishant Sharma dismissed Naman Ojha and Venugopal Rao early to put the Delhi Daredevils on the backfoot.

Ishant dismissed Rao (3) of a short delivery. Rao backed away and tried to slash the ball hard but only managed to miscue it high in the air towards point as JP Duminy took a brilliant catch.

A brilliant half-century from JP Duminy helped Deccan Chargers set Delhi Daredevils 176 runs to win.

Duminy who was replaced in place of White, belted some huge sixes and brought up a quick-fire fifty.

Yogesh Nagar got both Christian and Duminy out, but both were overturned as he had overstepped. Sloppy stuff from Delhi even as credit has to be given to Sangakkara, who played a classy knock.

Only Aavishkar Salvi and Ajit Agarkar impressed with the ball for the Daredevils.

Deccan Chargers lost their openers Shikhar Dhawan (29) and Ravi Teja (2) early.

After a good partnership with captain Kumar Sangakkara, Dhawan came forward to an Agarkar delivery and drove it straight to mid on where Aavishkar Salvi took a dolly.

Earlier, Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag won the toss and elected to field first.

Delhi have made three changes for the match as they brought in Avishkar Salvi, Aaron Finch and James Hopes in place of Warner, Van Der Merwe, and Umesh Yadav.

Where as Deccan have made one change, Ishant Malhotra replaces Pragyan Ojha.

Teams:

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (c), Morne Morkel, Irfan Pathan, Travis Birt, Ajit Agarkar, Y Venugopal Rao, Aaron Finch, Naman Ojha, James Hopes, Aavishkar Salvi, Yogesh Nagar.

Deccan Chargers: Sunny Sohal, Shikhar Dhawanm, Kumar Sangakkara, Jean Paul Duminy, Daniel Christian, Ravi Teja, Bharat Chipli, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishan Malhotra, Ishant Sharma.

Source: Times of India

Five defeats at home have meant the Feroz Shah Kotla faithful have had little to cheer this season, and today was the bleakest day since Delhi Daredevils were routed by Mumbai Indians in their opening game. Two days after a Virender Sehwag special handed Kochi Tuskers Kerala a hiding, it was the turn of Mahela Jayawardene’s men to outclass Delhi, snapping a three-game losing streak by cruising to victory with five overs to go.

The Kotla track has been everything from a batting beauty to a square turner this season, but though the pitch was neither of those extremes on Monday, Delhi’s batsmen struggled to a sub-par total, and like generous hosts, their bowlers gave the visitors 18 extras to ease Kochi’s path to victory.

Delhi’s batting is hugely reliant on their two lethal hitters at the top of the order, Virender Sehwag and David Warner, and their early exits derailed their innings. Sehwag swatted a couple of fours in the first over, and greeted the debutant Prasanth Parameswaran with a brutal hit for six in the third over. Three balls later, though, Parameswaran had a moment to remember, getting Sehwag caught behind. And when Warner pulled Sreesanth to long-on, Delhi were down to 42 for 2.

It wasn’t exactly vintage Twenty20 batting after that as Venugopal Rao and Yogesh Nagar put on the biggest stand of the innings at just over a-run-a-ball. There was a surprise bouncer down the leg side from the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, and a ball that bounced twice from Vinay Kumar and was swiped for four, but otherwise it was mostly sedate stuff.

The arrival of Travis Birt spiced up things as he chipped in with a series of innovative strokes, scoring virtually all his runs behind the wicket. The highlight of the innings was his angled glide for four through third man, after he went down on a knee and initially looked to paddle the ball.

Delhi’s chances of winning hinged on keeping in tight and getting rid of the big names at the top of the Kochi batting early. Instead, Irfan Pathan sprayed five wides in the first over, and then gifted a boundary by slipping the ball down the leg side. Brendon McCullum then caned Morne Morkel for three fours in the next over, and the game was as good as over after Umesh Yadav’s first over went for 23. There was a classic McCullum extra cover drive, a chest-high full toss that was unintentionally clipped for six, another short ball that was crashed for six more, before a muscled four through cover-point propelled Kochi to 53 for 0 after four overs.

The openers were dismissed soon after, but with the asking rate at 5 and the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Brad Hodge to come, the next half hour was mostly about completing the formalities. Jayawardene was needlessly run-out, before Parthiv Patel and Hodge killed off any Delhi dreams of a comeback with an unbroken 52-run stand.

The result leaves Delhi needing five wins in their remaining matches to reach the final four, and while Kochi moved up to eight points, their route to the semi-finals isn’t straight-forward either.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

For his super-heroics, Virender Sehwag should consider wearing a cape. It’s not often that runs are hard to score in a competition like the IPL. The wickets are even-paced, the boundaries are short, and bowlers arrive on a feeder line to be smashed to pulp. However, against Kochi Tuskers, the Nehru Stadium today was different.

The boundaries were big, Kochi’s pace attack was on top, and the ball bounced with the full energy of a corpse. With his first ball of the match, Sreesanth removed David Warner. The ball didn’t get up at all, knocking back the base of the off-stump. In the same over, Naman Ojha looked to glance a ball which stayed even lower, knocking into his boots in front of leg-stump. The LBW was approved.

Hence, when the conditions are loaded in favour of bowlers, an innings like Sehwag’s become hard to forget in a tournament where there’s little premium on high-scoring. Back to the wall, at the bottom of the table, in a do-or-die situation, the Delhi captain made 80 (47b, 8×4, 5×6), helping Delhi make 157-7 when it seemed they would struggle to reach 120. This would rank among Sehwag’s finest knocks in any format.

Only one other batsman in the game crossed 30 — Kochi’s Ravindra Jadeja — but the game had slipped out of their grasp by then. Kochi went down by 38 runs, and Delhi have now vacated the last place on the points table for Pune Warriors.

With wickets falling, Delhi’s scoring came to a crawl after they decided to bat. At 60-3 in 12 overs, Sehwag was batting on an un-Sehwag like 31 off 32. Delhi’s’ revival began here. He deposited Jadeja over long-off and then deep midwicket to end the 13th over. He then pulled Vinay Kumar over midwicket for another six to bring up the fifty, followed by a chop past point for four.

B Akhil was then sent over extra cover for six, and two fours through point and midwicket. Suddenly, Delhi were on 116 in 16, and 150 looked on. Ramesh Powar arrived to take more punishment: a six over midwicket and a loft over extra cover for four. It seemed Sehwag would get a hundred but he hit Vinay to the man at the cover boundary.

Kochi’s chase never took off. Michael Klinger was caught acrobatically at square leg. Brendon McCullum tried to swat Irfan Pathan, missed, and was bowled. Again, the ball stayed low. Another one shot along the surface and penetrated Parthiv Patel’s defence.

Morne Morkel and Ajit Agarkar wiped out Kochi’s middle order, Roelof van der Merwe cleaned up the tail, and suddenly, Delhi had moved three places up to seventh. So violent have been the fluctuations in team standings this IPL, Delhi may find their way back into the top four with a couple of more wins. But for that to happen, they will need more Sehwag super-heroics.

AR Hemant, Yahoo! Cricket

Delhi Daredevils’ all-pace attack seemed to have done enough at the halfway stage to get their team a much-required win but Kolkata Knight Riders showed their mettle to scrap their way to an 18-run victory on a two-paced Feroz Shah Kotla track.

Both teams seemed to have misread the pitch, packing their sides with quicks. It was left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla though who was the most influential of the bowlers, spinning his first ball “like Warne to Gatting” according to Brett Lee, as he nipped out three wickets in a stifling spell.

After Delhi chose to bowl, Irfan Pathan found that elusive and coveted inducker to shackle Kolkata at the start, Umesh Yadav bowled it fast and at the batsman’s chest to snuff out two key batsmen in the middle overs, and even the much-ridiculed Ajit Agarkar kept it tight in the final over.

If the usually incisive and economical Morne Morkel was Delhi’s most expensive bowler, Kolkata’s best batsman was not one of their big-money imports, but their local boy, Manoj Tiwary, who made a combative half-century to stabilise the innings.

Still, Delhi had a seemingly below-par target to chase, and that was looking even smaller when Virender Sehwag was crashing boundaries at will through the off side. A murderous blast over cover followed by a piledriver past backward point from Sehwag in the fourth over took Delhi to 28 for 1.

Everything changed in the next two overs. Abdulla, the first spinner to bowl in the match, ripped the ball a long way in the fifth over, making the ball stop and nearly had James Hopes giving a return catch. Then, Jaidev Unadkat, who was getting the ball to jag around, fired in two bouncers at Sehwag, the second of which was top-edged to fine leg.

That massive wicket and the big turn combined to squeeze the runs, and only 21 came off the next five overs before Abdulla had Irfan swiping to Ryan ten Doeschate at midwicket. With Delhi’s experiment with Tasmanian batsman Travis Birt failing, much depended on Hopes, who also perished to Abdulla; ending a patient innings with a punch to cover in the 15th over. Three balls later, Abdulla had his third with Naman Ojha mowing to the deep, and at 86 for 6 Delhi were out of it.

Shah Rukh Khan and the rest in the Kolkata camp were briefly worried when Delhi blasted 14 off the 18th over, though they were smiling again as Brett Lee killed off the game with a perfect penultimate over which had two runs and two run-outs.

That silenced the Kotla crowd, which had plenty to cheer early on as their fast bowlers tied down Kolkata’s heavyweight batting. Jacques Kallis was swallowed up in the fifth over by the exaggerated inswing Irfan was extracting and Gautam Gambhir holed out against Hopes’ no-frills bowling for 18.

Tiwary was not at his most fluent, though he muscled the odd boundary to drive Kolkata ahead. The men Kolkata expected the big hits from – Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan – perished off successive deliveries from Umesh to leave the side at 105 for 5 in 15 overs. Though only three boundaries came off the final five overs, the total ultimately proved sufficient.

With the win Kolkata became the fourth team to occupy second spot in five days. While there has been plenty of churn in the middle of the table, there’s been no change at the top and bottom for several rounds, with Delhi remaining stuck at the wrong end.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Skipper Daniel Vettori and Syed Mohammad held their nerves to help Royal Challengers Bangalore overcome Delhi Daredevils by three wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at Feroz Shah Kotla.

Virat Kohli scored a fine 56 off 38 balls and shared 82 runs for the second wicket with Chris Gayle (26) to set the platform for the chase. Syed (13 not out) smashed two fours in the 18th over and Vettori (18 not out) brought off the winning runs with three balls to spare as Bangalore achieved their third victory in seven matches.

It looked all too easy when Kohli and Gayle were batting in the middle – scoring almost 12 runs per over but Delhi clawed back with the wicket of left-hander Gayle, when he edged one for a simple catch to Venugopal Rao in the deep mid-wicket region off James Hopes.

Bangalore’s middle order tried to consolidate and they lost their way. The turning point was the introduction into the attack by Sehwag of James Hopes, who claimed dangerous Gayle in his first over.

The tourists, chasing 161 for victory, lost AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in quick succession to put some unnecessary pressure on themselves.

Earlier, all-rounder James Hopes, being sent up the order, played a crucial knock of 54 runs and shared an important 47-run partnership with Venugopal Rao to help his team to a challenging total. Hopes was fortunate to have escaped on 43 after being caught off a no-ball from Abhimanyu Mithun in the 15th over.

The home team was rocked by early dismissals of openers David Warner and skipper Virender Sehwag with just 43 runs on board. Sehwag smashed three fours in his 25 runs before being run-out handing Bangalore early advantage.

Zaheer Khan gave Bangalore an early breakthrough, when he bowled in-form Warner for 7 runs but Hopes and Rao brought Delhi back on track for a decent total. The Australian all-rounder struck a patient half-century off 43 balls and Rao continued his fine form with the bat, scoring a valuable 24 runs with two fours and a six.

Naman Ojha (16) and Irfan Pathan (13) added some priceless runs in the end to delight the sizeable home crowd. Bangalore bowling stood up well to the task today with Mithun finishing with two for 37 from his four overs.

Delhi made three changes with Matthew Wade, Umesh Yadav and Ashok Dinda coming in for Aaron Finch, Varun Aaron and Ajit Agarkar. Bangalore left out Asad Pathan to accommodate Abhimanyu Mithun.

Bikash Singh, Yahoo! Cricket

Chetan Chauhan, former Test cricketer and DDCA official, was asked to comment on the fresh, green wicket at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. He said it will be very quick but there will be a lot of sixes hit today. He forgot to mention fours.

Delhi Daredevils hit 20 of them to go with 12 sixes as they piled 231-4, the highest score of the tournament. They wanted to blow Kings XI Punjab with raw pace by playing five seamers. Instead, they did it with some astonishing hitting.

Punjab didn’t go away quietly. They responded with 202-6, with 21 fours and 11 sixes. But 231 was a target too big, and despite their best intentions and Shaun Marsh’s belligerent 95 (46b), Punjab’s job bordered on the impossible. Morne Morkel bowled 14 dot balls in his first three overs, Paul Valthaty had a rare failure, and Punjab fell behind the required rate very quickly.

Virender Sehwag and David Warner both made 77, while Venugopal Rao and Naman Ojha contributed 47 in the three overs they batted. Delhi’s top-order batting revolves around these players, and all four of them delivered today, keeping Delhi in the hunt for a place in the second round. This is just their second win of the tournament after three losses.

After being inserted by Adam Gilchrist, Sehwag and Warner lived up to their billing of the tournament’s most dangerous opening pair. They raced to 52 in five overs, 115 in 10, 146 in 11.3 when Sehwag went for his fourth six off David Hussey’s first over and was caught at midwicket.

To not get 200 from there would have been criminal, and a one-sided game seemed on cards. Venugopal (28, 15b) and Ojha (19, 8b) gave them an excellent finish, one that mattered a huge deal in the final analysis.

Delhi dropped Gilchrist and Valthaty, both on zero. Gilchrist was missed by Ojha with the gloves while Valthaty was missed in the second over by Venugopal. Valthaty responded to the drop by plonking his front-foot down the pitch and swinging Pathan twice into the midwicket stands.

Gilchrist caught up, putting Morkel into the deep square-leg stands. But Punjab did not score for the next seven deliveries, causing Valthaty to attack Pathan again and mistime the shot to cover. Having made 71 in the last game, Marsh kept up a brutal attack over the next 13 overs. But they still needed 56 off the last three overs — and it proved 30 too many.

This game, with 433 runs in 40 overs, with 41 fours and 23 sixes, would also mark the arrival of Varun Aaron, clocked as India’s fastest pacer. The 21-year-old from Jamshedpur began poorly: Marsh pulled his first ball to square leg for four, and then clubbed him over long-on for six. Aaron bounced back, knocking back Gilchrist’s middle stump in his second over. After the expensive 13-run over, Aaron had figures of 3-0-23-1, absolute gold on a day like this.

Many years back, two of Aaron’s colleagues at the Daredevils made a name for themselves by dismissing Gilchrist. He was Ajit Agarkar’s first ODI wicket in 1998, while Pathan yorked the Aussie great in the Sydney Test of 2004. Those two have fallen by the wayside. How long Will Aaron go?

Source: AR Hemant, Yahoo! Cricket