Delhi lose Warner early against Bangalore
By CricketCountry Staff
New Delhi: Apr 26, 2011
Skipper Daniel Vettori was around to perform the last rites as Royal Challengers Bangalore scraped past Delhi Daredevils by 3 wickets in the Indian Premier League Match at Kotla.
Vettori and Syed Mohammad showed a lot of composure to see their side home in the final over.
Earlier, Delhi triggered a turnaround in their fortunes when they claimed three wickets in no time to derail Bangalore’s chase.
James Hopes started the Delhi fightback, getting rid of Chris Gayle for 26 after the West Indian and Kohli strung together 82 runs for the second wicket after Ashok Dina extracted Tillakaratne Dilshan in the first over.
David Warner’s superb throw from the deep saw AB de Villiers being run out for 5 before Morne Morkel bagged the wicket Delhi would have desired the most – castling Kohli for 56.
Yogesh Nagar pressed home the advantage when he had Cheteswar Pujara clubbing a long hop to David Warner at deep mid-wicket.
Morne Morkel further pushed Bangalore on the back foot with two wickets of Saurabh Tiwary and Abhimanyu Mithun before the Vettori-Syed combo finished things off.
Kohli looked the part ever since he came into bat No. 3. The right-hander didn’t let Delhi bowler gain the upper hand and clouted six boundaries in the first nine balls to race to 35 off 24 balls.
He brought up a half-century, flicking Hopes through square-leg for a boundary.
Gayle, coming off a blistering century in the last game against Kolkata, joined Kohli in the party, smacking a boundary and a six off Morne Morkel.
Earlier, James Hopes justified his promotion up the order, belting an exciting 54 off 43 balls to help Delhi Daredevils raise 160 for 6 in its allotted 20 overs.
Brief Scores: DD 160 for 6 in 20 overs (James Hopes 54, Virender Sehwag 25; Daniel Vettori 1 for 25, Zaheer Khan 1 for 27, Abhimanyu Mithun 1 for 37) vs RCB 161 for 7 in 19.3 overs (Virat Kohli 56; Morne Morkel 3 for 25, Yogesh Nagar 1 for 3, James Hopes 1 for 26, Ashok Dinda 1 for 36) by 3 wickets.
Pictures © AFP