NEW DELHI: Delhi Daredevils became the first team to cement their place in the play-offs as they bested Kings XI Punjab by 5 wickets on a seamer-friendly wicket at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Tuesday night.
Delhi’s 10match win of the season elevated them to 20 points, and was brought about by their young Indian bowler Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav, who controlled Punjab to 136-8, and Mahela Jayewardene, who lastly came excellent with an unbeaten 49-ball 56 as he guided his team home in the chase with an over to spare. The understanding of victory was not really straightforward. Delhi lost David Warner early, and then Parvinder Awana rocked them with 3 fast wickets – of Sehwag, Venugopal Rao and Ross Taylor, leaving the home side tottering on 37-4 in the 6th over.
penultimate over of the chase Jayewardene steady the ship with Naman Ojha (34) and then collaborate with Irfan Pathan to make certain that no last-gasp vagaries were allowable to creep in. Delhi needed 26 in 18 balls when parvinder Awana returned for his last over and what a turnaround in fortunes he experience. Pathan brutalizes the medium pacer for 3 boundaries, reducing the requirement radically. And then Jayewardene ended the game in style, by cracking three straight fours in Azhar Mahmood’s.The respective and possible gain from the match was known in black and white before the match.
Delhi needed to win one of three remaining games to make the next point, while Punjab needed to win all their remaining fixtures to stay in the hunt. As it happened, Delhi went through, and Punjab was left with a host of arithmetical possibilities, but little else. Punjab had earlier fended off Delhi’s pacemen to post 136-8, despite – or because of – a regular loss of wickets. In this 1st meeting between the teams in IPL-V, David Hussey played the lone hand for Kings XI with an unbeaten 40, as Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav picked up 5 wickets in 8 overs, giving away just 40 runs.
Punjab had progress to 24 without loss when the first one fell, as Varun had Shaun Marsh caught on the leg side off his 1st ball. In his next over, the young tear-away accounted for Mandeep Singh, who was pouched by Sehwag at mid-wicket. Still, Punjab reached 50in the 7th over, and looked good for a spirited total before Umesh Yadav came on to bowl in the 8 over of the innings. Almost right away, Umesh struck, striking as Nitin Saini hit out loosely at a speedy away-moving delivery to be caught at slip.
Much depended on David Miller, but the South African was run-out by a direct hit from Pawan Negi. And when Azhar Mahmood holed out to Umesh, Punjab were gone without any dependable batsman to maintain Hussey in the middle.Gurkeerat Singh, the man in charge for a match-winning cameo against Deccan Chargers, was good for a couple of boundaries, but he too departed soon – out stumped against the left-arm spin of Negi.
All this while, Hussey had cruised along; ensure that his team had great to defend. But the total that Punjab ended with was never going to be enough, despite Delhi losing their top batsmen with barely everything on the board.
Man of the match
Umesh Yadav
Mum Indians v KKR (20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)
