By Jamie Alter
Delhi Daredevils put their season blues behind them as they outperformed Kings XI Punjab in every department to win by 29 runs on a Feroz Shah Kotla pitch that hadn’t looked this avocado-coloured since December 2008 when Delhi beat Orissa inside two days on a devilish green top during a Ranji Trophy fixture.
Published: Apr 23, 2011, 11:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 23, 2011, 11:26 PM (IST)
Delhi Daredevils beat Kings XI Punjab by 29 runs at Kotla
By Jamie Alter
New Delhi: April 23, 2011
Delhi Daredevils put their season blues behind them as they outperformed Kings XI Punjab in every department to win by 29 runs on a Feroz Shah Kotla pitch that hadn’t looked this avocado-coloured since December 2008 when Delhi beat Orissa inside two days on a devilish green top during a Ranji Trophy fixture.
Virender Sehwag and David Warner finally fired in unison to give the home fans something to smile about and having picked five seamers, DD managed to win despite being run ragged by Shaun Marsh’s excellent 95 off just 46 balls.
There was green on the Kotla wicket, as Sehwag demanded, and having been asked to have first use of it by Adam Gilchrist, he and Warner paved the way for a franchise-record total with an opening stand of 146 in 70 balls. Each of KXIP’s bowlers was taken to task, with Praveen Kumar the first to suffer.
Warner took two boundaries off his first over, before Sehwag crashed boundaries through square leg, midwicket, mid-on and backward point to leave Praveen nursing figures of 3-0-38-0. Shalabh Srivastava fared little better with an opening over that cost 17 including five wides, a flowing straight six and a top-edged four, both to Warner. Thus, after the Powerplay, DD were 70 for 0.
Warner welcomed Abhishek Nayar and Piyush Chawla with boundaries and brought up his half-century off 29 balls when Paul Valtathy dropped short and craned his neck to follow the trajectory of a pulled six. For good measure, Warner brought up DD’s hundred with a steered four through gully in the same over. Shockingly, Srivastava, Nayar, Chawla and Valtathy had conceded 51 in four overs.
The carnage continued with Sehwag surging past Warner with four sixes in six balls, three off successive deliveries from David Hussey. Long-on, deep midwicket and deep square leg were pinged with alarming brutality, but attempting a fourth six off Hussey, Sehwag picked out deep midwicket for 77 off just 35 balls. A brief stumble ensued, with Warner also falling for 77, but Rao injected 28 off 15 and Ojha 19 off eight as DD took 47 off the last three overs.
KXIP’s innings started eventfully, with Gilchrist dropped on 0 when Ojha leaped across in front of Sehwag at first slip and Valtathy also reprieved before he had got started, when Rao spilled a running catch at deep square leg. Valtathy didn’t cash in after two successive sixes off Irfan Pathan, and it was down to a second-wicket stand of 72 in just under seven overs between Gilchrist and Marsh to kick-start things.
While Marsh started like a man with a train to catch, slashing five fours and two sixes off his first 16 balls, Gilchrist looked briefly like he was at the wrong party before using the pace of the bowler to cut and pull boundaries behind square, including four in four balls off the wayward Ajit Agarkar.
Gilchrist was bowled for 42 trying to pull the debutant Varun Aaron, who came back well after conceding 15 in his first over, and Agarkar dismissed Dinesh Karthik to keep a tab on things. Marsh cracked on, however, taking his six tallies to six before being caught by Sehwag five short of what would have been a splendid century. More wicket fells and boundaries came in a frenetic final flurry, but DD had done enough to clinch victory.
Brief Scores: DD 231 for 4 in 20 overs (David Warner 77, Virender Sehwag 77; David Hussey 1 for 19, Abhishek Nayar 1 for 22) bt KXIP 202 for 6 in 20 overs (Shaun Marsh 95, Adam Gilchrist 42; Ajit Agarkar 2 for 48, Irfan Pathan 1 for 26, Morne Morkel 1 for 32, Varun Aaron 1 for 36) by 29 runs
Man of the Match: David Warner
(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)
Pictures © Getty Images
