IPL 4: Deccan Chargers brush aside Delhi Daredevils

New Delhi: Deccan Chargers earned full two points at Feroz Shah Kotla, brushing aside the lackluster Delhi Daredevils by 16 runs.

It was a good all round performance by the Chargers with Sunil Sohal scoring a half century and later Harmeet Singh pitching-in with 2 wickets. Delhi were never really in the hunt of chasing down 168, losing wickets at regular intervals.

Irfan Pathan (5) departed again, failing to click at the right time, trying for a big one and giving Ojha his first wicket. Irfan has been a shadow of himself all along this IPL and continued his rather dogged form both with the bat and ball.

David Warner had earlier walked to the pavilion leaving Delhi to totter. Warner had been playing sensibly ensuring one end remained intact even though wickets were falling at the other end regularly. But with the ever increasing required run rate, Warner was clearly under pressure and while trying to clear the mid wicket boundary, he failed to get the elevation.

In a bid to up the run rate, in form batsmen Venugopal Rao went for the big one, but was caught at long off by Dan Christian of Amit Mishra giving the advantage back to Deccan Chargers. Rao and David Warner were building up a crucial partnership rotating the strike regularly and blasting away the loose ones. It was the all important wicket that Deccan were after.

Delhi had slumped to 38 for 3 as the big hitting Aaron Finch was caught behind, yielding Harmeet Singh his second wicket of the match. Deccan clawed back into the game after an explosive start by the Daredevils.

Deccan had got their second wicket in the 4th over, when terribly out of form Naman Ojha was trapped LBW off Dan Christian.

In the previous over, Sehwag once again failed to deliver goods as he went back to the pavilion with a score of 12. Dan Christian took a sharp catch at point to dismiss the Delhi Skipper. Sehwag had started off in his usual fashion taking Dan Christian to the cleaners with 3 boundaries with David Warner playing a second fiddle.

In the first half, Deccan Chargers ended up with 168 against Delhi Daredevils at Feroz Shah Kotla. Cameron White who was included in the team, remained unbeaten on 31.

Earlier, Sunny Sohal had finally come good for the Deccan Chargers as he completed his half century before holding out at mid off. Throughout his innings of 62, Sohal took his chances and timed the ball well. He combined with his skipper to lay a solid foundation for the rest of Deccan batsmen to a have a late flourish.

Kumar Sangakkara had miscued one of Askok Dinda to give Delhi their second breakthrough. Sangakkara was in sublime form as he reached 49 in no time. He along with Sunny Sohal maintained a healthy run rate throughout. The Deccan captain hit some exquisite drives on both side of the wicket and was severe on the left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, plundering 2 boundaries and a huge six over midwicket in his over.

Playing at their home ground Delhi Daredevils were off to a good start as Irfan Pathan clean bowled Shikhar Dhawan, who tried to pull a good length delivery only to play on to his own wicket in the second over of the match with the score on 14.

Dhawan was looking positive right from the onset as he cracked consecutive boundaries of Ashok Dinda, but failed to carry on.

Deccan Chargers skipper Kumar Sangakkara had won the toss and elected to bat first in their Indian Premier League match against Delhi Daredevils.

JP Duminy was left out of the Chargers line-up and Cameron White, who arrived from Dhaka during their last game, was included in the playing eleven. Delhi also made two changes, bringing in Morne Morkel and Yogesh Nagar, in place of Matthew Wade and Umesh Yadav.

(This article was first published in Zeecric.com)
http://cricket.zeenews.com/fullstory.aspx?nid=37766

FIESTA de IPL: INDIANS THUMP AUTHORITY IN DEVIL’S DEN

Delhi Daredevils got a taste of their own medicine as excellent batting display and immaculate bowling performance propelled the Mumbai Indians to the top of the table vanquishing the ever dangerous Delhi by 98 runs.

TEAMS

MUMBAI INDIANS: There was no need for Sachin Tendulkar to make any changes in his squad, but again if you have the costliest player coming in and a player of Dwayne Bravo’s caliber; you are bound to make that change for sure. West Indian Keiron Pollard came in for Ryan Maclaren as Ali Murtaza had to sit out for Bravo, Rayadu and Tiwary were in good knick and a big score was definitely on the cards.

DELHI DAREDEVILS: Punjab and Rajasthan did not pose any serious competition for the Devils, so this was definitely the first litmus test for them in IPL 3.Gambhir, the captain had to show his class in this match, Gambhir fielded an unchanged squad.

Delhi won the toss and elected to bowl first.

GENIUS AT WORK

The mainstay of Delhidardevils, Dirk Nannes did not have the start he would have expected against two legends, starting of with 3 wides on the trot as he over pitched one to Sachin who got it past the cover region with ease for the first boundary. Sachin had started of ominously. Daredevils missed couple of run out chances and the little master went on at his business striking the ball neat and clean, Things worsened for Delhi as captain Gautam Gambhir had to limp back to the dugout due to a pulled hamstring. Substitute Yogesh Nagar though made his presence felt with a stunner of a catch to dismiss the dangerous Jayasurya. Tendulkar though continued nonchalantly picking up the gaps beautifully and timing, exquisite. Aditya Tare seemed to have a gameplan, he just tried to whack every ball, and after failing to connect two pulls, he smashed one over the midwicket boundary of Pradeep Sangwan, Sangwan later got his revenge knocking over Tare. Promising Saurabh Tiwary joined the Little Master as spinners operated from both ends. Tendulkar after delicately placing the ball to third man boundary and dancing down the wicket for a full blooded on drive got holed out at long off, 63 of 32, Tendulkar had done his job.

YOUTHFUL EXUBERENCE

Amabati Rayadu then joined Tiwary as both continued their good form from the first match maintaining the 10 run per over rate. While Tiwary used his feet against the spinners playing them on full, Rayadu decided to utilize the crease shifting his weight to the backfoot clearing the rope with ease on quite a few occasions. By the time Rayadu and Tiwary departed, the later hitting his consecutive 50, the stage was set for Pollard and Bravo to provide the late fireworks. The inning’s final over bowled by Ladda yielded 14 runs and the score was a mammoth 218.

BRISK START

With a batting line up that of the devils, no target was improbable, Dilshan and Sehwag  showed glimpses of that as they amassed 33 of 3 overs, Dilshan scored his first IPL 3 runs smashing Zaheer Khan towards the mid off boundary. Sehwag flicked with vengeance while Dilsan improvised innovatively.

DEVILS COME CRASHING DOWN

The decisive blow was given by Malinga as he foxed his counterpart Dilshan with a slower one; the off stump did a cart wheel. AB De Villiers came in dispatching the very first ball for 4, timing immaculate. In order to up the run rate, Sehwag tried to clear the long off, but with Bravo’s medium pace he failed, Rayadu taking a straight forward catch. Sehwag back in the hood, the same over resulted in the demise of De Villiers. Mahroof and Karthik came in; no signs of Gambhir yet. Delhi were in a spot of bother. Kathik hit three pure cricketing shots for boundaries, he needed to hit a dozen more but when he was brilliantly stumped by Aditya Tare, the spot of bother had turn into a black hole for revival. Mahroof hit some lusty blows to reach 28, the highest for the devils, but the only thing left to see was how big the margin will be. Eventually Harbhajan knocked over Nannes. A 98 runs defeat, Mumbai went on top of the table.

MI 2_ DD 2   

FIESTA de IPL: DAREDEVILS TAME LIONS OF PUNJAB

KINGS AND DEVILS

KINGS XI PUNJAB: Lead by Kumara Sangakkara the Mohali outfit opted for two genuine spinners for a lively pitch and included Manvinder Bisla of Haryana ahead of his more flamboyant counterpart, Karan Goel. Kings have lead the Daredevils 3 – 1 in head to head encounters in IPL.

DELHI DAREDEVILS: They could be termed as the proverbial chockers of IPL, two semifinals finishes in last two editions, Daredevils lead by new captain Gautam Gambhir would be eyeing to do one step better this season . They opted to bench explosive David Warner for an extra bowler in Farveez Mahroof, alongside speedster Dirk Nannes and young sensation Pradeep Sangwan and YO Mahesh with Amit Mishra being the only spinner.

Delhi won the toss and elected to field first.

KINGS SUCCUMB TO DEVILS PLAY

Ravi Bopara and Manvinder Bisla walked out to the middle in a hope to give their team a flying start but Dirk Nannes started of as usual with speed, swing and conviction. The first over yielded only a single and a direct hit from Mithun Manhas put Manvinder Bisla back to the hood. The opening bowlers Dirk Nannes and Mahroof extract maximum bounce and swing making batsmen’s life a misery. After a lusty blow straight over the top of bowler Mahroof, Sangakarra departed soon followed by Yuvraj and immediately superseded by Jayawerdene for a golden duck. After 7 overs scorecard reads 49/4 in favour of the Devils. Bopara on the other end played himself in negotiating the good deliveries and pouncing on the loose one with good effect. Irfan Pathan joined Bopara and scored a handy 21 of 15 before being foxed by Dilsan. Good captaincy shown by Gauti to give the ball to Dilsan who has the knack of taking wickets at crucial juncture. When Bopara was holed out in deep square leg of the bowling of Yo Mahesh, all hopes of a late flourish smoked out and in the end Kings managed to put up a decent but below par 142.

KINGS RESURGENCE, GAUTIS PURSUANCE

When Virender Sehwag is on the crease, Devils look formidable and others mere minions, but when Sehwag departs the roles are reversed and that’s what exactly Southern Sizzler Sreesanth did for Kings XI Punjab. After many months Sree looked sharp for the first time and bowled full to produce sterling out swingers. Sehwag and Dilsan out in the second over itself and Devils where in a spot of bother. Pathan and Sree exploited the new ball, and bowled superbly to put Delhi in the same position as they were while batting. The good work by the opening bowlers was carried on by Yusuf Abdulla and Piyush Chawla as they stuck to the basics giving away nothing building pressure on Gambhir and AB De Villers. The stress showed as AB went for a non existent single eventually getting run out. Dinesh Karthik came in and scratched his way to 18 balls 20 before getting caught at long off. Amidst all this ataxia, Gambhir was determined nudging the ball here and there and producing some exquisite cuts and paddle sweep to keep his team in the hunt. The veteran Mithun Manhas joined Gauti and he played excellently without any urgency rotating the strike and running hard between the wickets. The match looked like to be hanging in a balance, until Sangakarra introduced off spinner Romesh Pawar into the attack in the 14^th over as Gambhir launched his assault over the spinner, milking 16 of the over. Mithun and Gauti continued to inch closer to victory without any further fuss. The 19 over saw Pathan drop a sitter of Manhas, and when Manhas crashed one into the fence, Pathan would have thought that he had dropped the match. Gambhir assured a victory hitting the 5^th ball of the penultimate over high superbly over long off for a 6.The equation read 4 from 6, though Gauti got out for a valiant 72 of 53 Mithun Manhas and Mahroof ensured a clinical victory for the Devils.

THE REAL DEVIL

Captain Gautam Gambhir proved to the deciding factor in the match as he guided his beasts from hell to victory, a real captain’s knock this will definitely boost his morale in the coming matches both as captain and a batsmen.