Sunday, May 8, 2011
Cricket: IPL 2011: Super hot Sehwag leads Delhi to crucial win
NEW DELHI: Virender Sehwag finally broke the shackles and came out of the pressure of captaincy on Saturday to lead Delhi Daredevils to an attractive victory over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League 2011 (IPL 2011) at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
Virender Sehwag. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
Virender Sehwag (77 from 35 – 8 fours, 4 sixes) showed his punishing touch as he along with his left-hand Australian opening batsman David Warner (77 from 48 – 7 fours, 4 sixes) blasted Punjab bowlers brutally to all corners of the ground during their mammoth 146 runs opening partnership from just 70 balls. During the course, the pair scored the fastest hundred by any team in the IPL 2011.
David Warner. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
After such a blistering start, it became a little too hard of a job to match the excellence for the later batsmen but a strong finish by Venugopal Rao (28 not out from 15 – 3 fours, 1 six) and NV Ojha (19 not out from eight, 1 four, 2 sixes) propelled the home side to the highest total of the current season of 231 runs for the loss of only four wickets from 20 overs.
There was nothing to talk about as far as bowling of Kings XI Punjab is concerned as the best economy rate for them was nine runs per over by Piyush Chawla (1/36) while rest of the guys had their economy rates in the double figures.
David Warner. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
Even after scoring over 200 runs, Delhi Daredevils couldn’t have the luxury of getting relieved as Kings XI Punjab had the batting power to chase this total and they started off in great fashion as their skipper Adam Gilchrist (42 from 33 – 8 fours, 1 six) and Paul Valthaty (14 from 10 – 2 sixes) gave them an electric start. Despite losing the in-form Valthaty, Punjab looked on course as Shaun Marsh (95 from 46 – 9 fours, 6 sixes) joined forces with his captain to score 72 runs for the second wicket from just 40 balls thus keeping the visitors in the game.
Virender Sehwag. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
However, after losing Gilchrist, the Punjab team lost their way just a little bit as Dinesh Karthik (6 from 5, 1 four) and David Hussey (20 from 10 – 2 sixes) failed to keep up with the soaring asking rate and lost their wickets in a bid to use long handles before AM Nayar (17 not out from 13, 3 fours) batted out the final overs to steer Punjab to score of 202 runs in their quota of overs.
Ajit Agarkar was the only bowler who managed to capture two scalps but during the course he went for 47 runs from his four overs. The best bowler in the match from economy rate perspective was Morne Morkel who went for 8.00 runs per over.
Delhi Daredevils. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
David Warner was declared Man of the Match for his blistering innings at the top. Despite of winning the match in style, Delhi Daredevils are still languishing at the last position in the Indian Premier League 2011 points table with four points.
