PUNE: Just four wickets fell, equitably divided across the 2 innings, and in the end Delhi Daredevils paid Pune Warriors back in the same coin, avenge a recent home beating to the same team with an 8-wicket away win at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Tuesday.
Virender Sehwag, speedy approaches top form – if not there already – made mincemeat of the 147 target, with a strutting unbeaten 87, as none of Sourav Ganguly’s tricks and ploys appears to work. Delhi overhauls the target with four overs to spare when the skipper swung Rahul Sharma for his 3rd six of the match.
Not once was Delhi tested, except possibly for a stray few moments when Sehwag left Mahela Jayewardene in the lurch, because the Sri Lankan’s run out early in the chase. But the Delhi skipper more than made up for the lapse with a display of aggressive batting after that, single-handedly takes his team across the line with ten boundaries and 3 sixes.
Earlier, Pune Warriors elected to bat and reached a reputable total – thorugh an unbeaten 145-run stand in 18.4 overs for the 3rd wicket- despite losing Jesse Ryder and Ganguly within the 1st2 overs of their innings. Manish Pandey (80) and Robin Uthappa (60) stepped up to be count; yanking Pune out from their hole and bringing them back to the brink of competitiveness.
They had to counter tight bowling from Delhi’s 2 left-arm spinners – Shahbaz Nadeem and Pawan Negi – who bowled their 8 overs for just 44 runs. But once the 2 were bowled out, Pune’s batsmen looked to up the tempo. Pandey struck 3 sixes, but was dropped at least 2 times (on 20 and 44) during his knock, before bring up his half-century in 40 balls. Uthappa was quite more watchful. He reaches his 50 in 52 balls, allowing his more frenetic partner to get the fast runs.
The last 4 overs of Pune Warriors innings yielded 47 runs, as the home team sough to break the shackles of their slow start. Pandey clouted a six off Irfan Pathan and following boundaries off Umesh Yadav. Uthappa too selected up steam, punch fours off Morne Morkel, who, in anticipation of then, had bowled inexpensively.
Pune’s last gasp hard work heaved them to 146-2, a totality that was no match for Sehwag in his present state of mind.
Player of the match
Virender Sehwag
Today Match
Kings XI v Mum Indians at Mohali
Apr 25, 2012 (16:00 local | 10:30 GMT)
RCB v Super Kings at Bangalore
Apr 25, 2012 (20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)
