Raipur: Delhi Daredevils have finally made a move on the point-tables as they registered their second win by beating Pune Warriors India at Raipur on Sunday.
Credit for this goes to the team-effort that Delhi Daredevils put forward to clinch this heart-racing thriller. Till the 17th over, the match hung in balance but a brilliant spell from Umesh Yadav gave Delhi a breather as he got the dangerous pair of Luke Wright and Yuvraj Singh out which changed the face of the match.
Irfan Pathan also played his part really well as he picked up couple of wickets, including that of Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa who gave PWI a terrific start of 76 runs. Earlier, it was David Warner’s brilliant innings of 51 runs along with Kedar Jadhav’s cameo of 25 that helped Delhi Daredevils post a competitive total of 164 runs on the board.
Chasing the target of 165, PWI started off well with duo of Finch and Uthappa who added 37 runs in first five overs. They kept the run rate in check and keep dealing in boundaries until the 10th over in which Shahbaz Nadeem gave just four runs. In order to accelerate the innings, Uthappa went for a big one off Pathan and was brilliantly caught at long on by Unmukt Chand. In the very same over Finch too departed.
But Yuvraj Singh and Luke Wright started off cautiously and made they chase look easy as they took PWI to a total of 2/104 in 14 overs and gave their side an upper-hand in this contest.
Wright soon started smacking boundaries on consistent basis and took his side to 2/128 in 17 overs. But the 18th over bowled by Yadav changed the complexion of the match as he picked up the wickets of Luke Wright and Yuvraj Singh and tilted the balance in DD’s favour. After that it became almost impossible for PWI to recover. Though Steve smith scored 18 runs off 8 balls, Pune ended up scoring 149 for the loss of four wickets in their 20 overs.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils lost the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene in the 5th over. But Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand played brilliantly as they took the score of DD to 68 in 10 overs and gave them the much needed stability. But Ashok Dinda bowled brilliantly to get his second wicket in Virender Sehwag in the final ball of the 10th over which brought explosive David Warner. In the 11th over; Rahul Sharma gave PWI a much needed breakthrough by getting Chand out and reduced DD to 3/68.
With the wickets tumbling from one end, Warner held the fort from other end and unleashed himself soon to score 10 and 13 runs in 16th and 17th over and took DD past 120. But the final over of Kane Richardson made the real difference as he gave away 21 runs to Delhi’s delight.
With 13 runs in the last over, DD ended up posting a stiff total of 164 runs on the board. Warner played a stunning innings of 51 runs, which were studded with four fours and four sixes, in just 25 balls. Kedar Jadhav played a nice little cameo of 25 runs.
By ISN