Match Review of Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils

Indian Premier League
Date 5th May 2011
TeamsDeccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils
Match no. 46
VenueRajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad
Umpires Asad Rauf and A. M. Saheba Third Umpire: S.L. Shastri
Toss Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field

Playing XI

Deccan Chargers Kumar Sangakara © Shikhar Dhawan Ravi Teja J.P. Duminy Dan Christian Amit Mishra Raiphi Gomez Dale Steyn Bharat Chipli I. Malhotra Sunny Sohal Ishant Sharma

Delhi Daredevils David Warner Virender Sehwag © Naman Ojha Venugopal Rao Travis Birt Yogesh Nagar Irfan Pathan Morne Morkel R. Van der Merwe Ajit Agarkar Umesh Yadav

DC vs. DD, the Deccan Chargers take on the Delhi Daredevils on their home ground. The Chargers are positioned 7th on the tally with six points in their bag. The Daredevils on the other hand are stranded at the bottom three with 6 points in their kitty. So it was an evenly poised match between two teams at the residue of the table. Both teams had couple of things in common. One they have not performed as per the expectations and have struggled in all the crucial matches. Secondly, the whole team relied heavily on their Skippers to play a big innings and turn the table in team's favor.

Looking into the stats, the Daredevils performance has been good away from home and the Chargers have not shown any ignite at their home grounds. So as per numbers, Daredevils were the favorites.

The Daredevil's captain won the toss and elected to field. It looked like a batting friendly pitch as the ball was expected to come well on the bat easy to be hit around. Anything above 170 would be a match winning total.

The Deccan's innings was opened by Shikhar Dhawan and Ravi Teja. Dhawan started the innings brilliantly by hitting the Daredevil's lead bowler Morkel for a four off the 1st ball. Though Dhawan has not played any exceptionally well innings this whole season, looked in good nick. His team was quickly removed in the 3rd over itself at a team total of 19. The skipper came in to bat at No 3. Even after losing a wicket so early, the Deccan's had a blazing start and were finding gaps very well. A good partnership started building up, the Skipper launched into Morkel hitting him for three successive boundaries in the 6th over. The two built a partnership of 39 runs of 36 balls before Dhawan was removed by Agarkar at an individual score of 29 in 18 balls.

Sangakara was involved in a quick partnership of 29 runs in just 19 balls with Duminy. The skipper got out when he tried to slog a ball and was caught by James Hopes at the boundary at a score of 87 in the 12th over. . Christian has been a consistent performer, was the new man at the crease.

Duminy after few disappointing performances in the past came good with the bat with a slice of luck. Yogesh Nagar, the Daredevil's spinner dismissed both Duminy and Christian in the same over but tragically both the deliveries were declared "No Ball" and given "Free hit". Both the deliveries were smashed over the boundary. Thereafter, both the batsman were unstoppable. The duo contributed 71 runs in just no time. Duminy and Christian individually contributed 55 (31) and 27 (21) runs respectively. Last 10 overs they just kept smashing the ball scoring a whopping 108 runs. This partnership helped Deccan post a challenging total of 175 / 5.

176 to win must have got Sehwag thinking if he took the right call after winning the toss. It was a very tough ask and became all the more challenging for the Daredevils who had a non-performing middle order. This run chase required either an exceptional knock from the Skipper or small and quick partnerships at all levels.

Chargers have a great opening pair, Steyn and Ishant Sharma; both ensure that they try to take out whatever juice available in the pitch. With Warner not in the squad, the innings was opened by Sehwag and Finch. A bad start for Daredevils once again, with Finch returning to the pavilion without scoring. The Daredevils 1st wicket goes down without any score on the board. The Daredevil's keeper Naman Ojha, who has been just a failure, came in to bat. Repeating his performance he got out without troubling the scorecard. Venugopal Rao who has played some important knocks for the team got out while trying to take the run rate up. The opening bowling attack had done the job for the team. The Daredevil's, were 3 wickets down for 25 runs in the 6th over.

Runs not coming, wickets falling in quick succession and everything going wrong for the Daredevils. They have been into this kind of scenario in most of their matches where they have lost 3 crucial wickets under a score of 50 runs. The Daredevils were 25-3 in the 6th over. Birth came out to join Sehwag after the fall of Rao's wicket. The situation demanded 151 runs of 84 balls. The team was still hopeful till the time their Skipper was around as he has the ability to turn around things.

Having seen the pacers off and with spinners in attack, Sehwag decided to take charge of the situation. He stated demolishing the Deccan attack Single handedly. As the saying goes, Fortune favors the brave, it proved correct with Sehwag was dropped couple of times due to sloppy fielding when he was trying to attack every ball.

Sehwag was the major contributor to the scorecard. While Sehwag was hitting the ball around, the other batsman Birt lost his wicket to Christian. Though he got out cheaply on 7 but did a very crucial partnership of 61 runs, most of them contributed by Sehwag. Irfan Pathan was the new man at the crease. Irrespective of the fall of wickets at the other hand, Sehwag was in devastating mood. He reached his 100 of just 44 deliveries.

Sehwag's building innings became a cause of concern for the Charger's skipper who brought his main strike bowler Steyn back into attack. Steyn could help his team only to the extent that he put breaks on Sehwag's scoring rate. But it was too late by then, as the scoring rate was completely under control with just 6 per over. Sehwag would have liked to finish off the things for his team but was unfortunate to get out Steyn after scoring 119 runs of just 56 deliveries. His innings comprised of 13 fours and 6 sixes.

At one stage the Chargers were in complete control of the situation, little did they have any idea of what is in store for them. Sehwag played one of the marvelous innings of IPL and that too when the team needed it badly. The required run rate came under 6 when Hopes and Nagar were batting. Nagar finished off the things in style by hitting Amit Mishra for a six with 6 balls to spare.

Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 4 wickets.

The Awards

Man of the match
Virender Sehwag for his outstanding inning of 119 in 56 balls with 13 boundaries and 6 sixes.

Maximum Sixes
Virender Sehwag for hitting 6 huge sixes.

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Kings XI Punjab tops the chart & Knight Riders at the bottom.

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Dare Devils.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day
Does Delhi Daredevils stand any chance to reach to playoff?



Last Updated on 9 May 2011