Gambhir drives Delhi home

15 Apr 2010

An unbeaten 57 from captain Gautam Gambhir led the Delhi Daredevils to a six wicket win after the Chennai Super Kings could only muster 112-9.

The devilish MA Chidambaram Stadium pitch offered variance with the new ball and turn for the spinners, and Delhi’s disciplined attack flourished. MS Dhoni will be regretting his choice to bat first having given the Daredevils their first win in four matches.

Hayden fell early, undoing himself with a walk down the wicket to an astute Ashish Nehra. Dirk Nannes and Nehra used the short ball effectively, top edges from MS Dhoni and Murali Vijay leaving Chennai on 23 for 3. Gambhir then brought on his spinners who suffocated the home side, and the plummeting run-rate produced chances. Two fortuitous Hussey boundaries in the eighth were the last time Chennai would score more than six in an over until the 18th.

Raina fell shortly after to Tillakaratne Dilshan, followed by Hussey then Albie Morkel who both fell to Virender Sehwag, marking a three wicket collapse in two overs. This left Chennai floundering at 55-6 by the 10th, but Subramaniam Badrinath nudged the ball around to save Chennai from humiliation. Doug Bollinger belted the final ball of the 18th over for the only six of the innings, and the match.

In response, Gambhir’s innings was measured – only exceeding run a ball with the match winnning boundary – but along with Mithun Manhas [25*] provided a backbone after Delhi’s initial stuttering start which had them at 6-3 within the first two overs. Chennai would only muster one more wicket [Karthik for 13 in the seventh] before Gambhir and Manhas worked the Super Kings out of contention. In the face of the meagre total the pair were able to deal largely in singles and doubles, overcoming the total with eight balls to spare.

This match, the latest in a series of low-scoring IPL encounters, heralded only 18 boundaries, and 225 runs.

Delhi leapfrog Chennai with this win, taking them to third on the congested IPL points table.

Chennai 112-9 (20 overs)
Subramaniam Badrinath 30, Ashish Nehra 3-26, Virender Sehwag 2-18
Delhi 113-4 (18.4 overs)
Gautam Gambhir 57*, Mithun Manhas 25*, Doug Bollinger 2-24
Delhi win by six wickets

Click here for a full scorecard.


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