Captain Maneuvers Delhi Home

It was one of those rare T20 games where ball dominated bat. It was the same ground where 469 runs were scored a fortnight ago, but last night they struggled to score even 225 runs. In a low scoring game Delhi emerged victorious. They were in a spot of bother after losing couple games and needed a win to keep them in the hunt for semifinal spot. A good bowling performance and sensible knock by Daredevils captain Gambhir saw them home.

Chances are that sponsors may sue Chennai and Delhi as there was only one Maximum hit in entire match.  Such was a domination of ball over bat that only tail-ender Doug Bollinger managed to hit a ball over ropes. Who would have thought in match having big hitters like Hayden, Raina, Dhoni, Hussey, Vijay, Morkel, Sehwag, Warner and Dilshan a tail-ender will win a Maximum Sixes award for his lone six.

After opting to bat first MSD would have thought of putting up a good score on board, but they lost the steam early in their inning and ended up with paltry 112 in 20. At half way through their inning Super Kings were 56-6 and they never recovered from that precarious situation. Badrinath stayed there till end but could not rescue them. In surprising move Dhoni promoted himself ahead of in-form Raina and that disturbed the set batting line-up. May be he wanted some batting practice before crucial games but why would one want to hold back his best batsman. Surely that decision backfired Chennai.

Mongoose has gone silent for last few games and it didn’t make any noise last night either. Hayden got out cheaply but his Australian mate looked in good nick and along with Raina tried to put up some fight after a poor start but they both lost their wicket on either side of power play. Gambhir used his bowlers wisely. On a slow and spinning deck even part-timers Dilshan and Sehwag looked dangerous. Dilshan finished with 19-1 and Sehwag took 2 for18 in his quota of 4 overs. Comeback duo of injured Nehra and Nannes provided early breakthrough. Nehra was bowling at his best and took 3-26 in his 4. Purple cap contender Mishra took 13-1 in his 4.

With meager 112 on board, CSK could only hope for a miracle or a dream start and Ashwin and Bollinger gave them one. Delhi was reduced to 6-3 in 1.4 overs. All the big hitters Warner, Sehwag and Dilshan were back in hut. In 7^th over Kathik lost his wicket and with only 38 on board and 4 down Daredevils were in deep trouble but Gambhir dropped the anchor and steered them home. Gambhir toiled hard for his 56 and along with Manhas put a partnership of 75 and that was enough to get past Chennai total.

These days post match presentation ceremonies are turning out to be more entertaining. First an ordinary team comment and then Red Light Area comment but yesterday Gambhir was right in saying that you need to play according to game situation and should not throw away your wicket saying that’s the way I play. No points for guessing the target mates. Its high time now for Sehwag to answer Coach’s call on his dual SIM.

It was 50^th game of league, 6 more games to go before semi-finals and we are not sure about final 4 except MI. Delhi with their 7^th win from 13 games jumped to third place. They will play Deccan Chargers in their last league game which will be second last game of league stage and a win will ensure them a semi final birth.

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