Kochi: Virender Sehwag
(80 off 47 balls) played a captain's knock on a difficult wicket to steer Delhi
Daredevils to a 38-run win over Kochi Tuskers in their Indian Premier League
match here Saturday.
Sehwag, who had been critical of his
poor form this season, single-handedly took the team to 157 for seven on a
pitch of uneven bounce.
Chasing under the circumstances was
always going to be hard for the Tuskers and they folded up for 119 in 18.5
overs. Morne Morkel (3/18), Roelof van der Merwe (3/20) and Irfan Pathan (2/27)
bowled in the right areas to get Daredevils home.
The win has pushed the Delhi side to
seventh place in the table with six points from eight matches. The Tuskers also
have the same number of points, but are placed ninth.
The Tuskers were under pressure from
ball one and it showed with their main batsman Brendon McCullum (7) getting out
straightaway to a rash shot off Pathan. The low bounce also got the better of
Patel (1) and when Captain Mahela Jayawardene was caught by his counterpart off
Agarkar, the match seemed to have slipped out of Tuskers' grasp.
Brad Hodge (27) and Ravindra Jadeja (31)
provided some resistance but getting 78 off last 36 balls seemed like a
mountain to climb.
Earlier, Daredevils did well to post a
150-plus score after being at 45 for three in the first 10 overs. David Warner
(3) and Naman Ojha (1) were victims of the pitch with Sreesanth's deliveries
keeping awfully low, especially in the case of Ojha as he was adjudged leg
before getting the ball on his toe. A 100 plus score looked improbable at that
time but Sehwag came to the rescue as he batted beyond 15 overs for the first
time in the tournament.
Batting patiently on a challenging
wicket, Sehwag smashed the bowlers in his trademark style after getting used to
the variable bounce.
The Indian opener got to his 50 with a
maximum on a slow bouncer off Vinay Kumar and departed in the 18th over trying
to hit another one out of the park.
It was a remarkable recovery from the
visitors as they amassed 112 runs in the last 10 overs, of which 63 came off
the last 30 balls. Yogesh Nagar (22) and Travis Birt (20) made useful
contributions towards the end.
Kumar, Balachandra Akhil and Ramesh
Powar proved most expensive for the Tuskers as they conceded 83 runs in their
eight overs. Source: IANS
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