DELHI: Delhi Daredevils rode on Kevin Petersen’s chance century to emerge 5-wicket winners over Deccan Chargers at the Feroz Shah Kotla here, on Thursday.
The win was Delhi’s 4th in 5 games season, while for Chargers the result was their 4th successive loss. The England superstar Kevin Petersen 9 sixes in his 64-ball 103 – as Delhi chased down the 158 target with 5 balls to spare – but was dropped 3 times (on 6, 68 and 94) in the course of his tempestuous knock.
Delhi buckled under the must early in their chase. They were 23-3 in the 5th over, with Naman Ojha, Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayewardene back in the pavilion, as Dale Steyn (4-0-19-2) came up with another brilliant spell. But Pietersen soon take charge, taking Amit Mishra to the cleaners and then going on a six-hitting spree against J.P. Duminy in the 13th over. Three huge sixes later, Duminy had the chance to get his man, but spilled a return catch that was coming to him at a rate of knot.
Soon, the necessary rate was pulled down to convenient proportions, and one more drop of Pietersen, this time by Sangakkara, permitted Delhi to reach the target without more ado. Earlier, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (4-0-16-3) kept up his excellent work and, in tandem with South Africa paceman Morne Morkel (4-0-23-3) limited Deccan Chargers to 157-8 after they had selected to bat.
Chargers made a rapid start during Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel, who added 71 in 41 balls for the 2nd wicket, and had reached 101 in 11 overs before it all started to fall apart. A big score look on the cards, but Nadeem drag the visitors each it looked to pull away. The left-armer picked up a wicket in each of his 1st 3 overs as no other batsmen spent sufficient time in the center to make an impact.
Dhawan worthless a glorious starts when he was missed in front going for a repeal sweep against Nadeem. Parthiv kept going at the other end, and reached his insistent peak in the 11th over – bowled by Umesh Yadav – biff a six and slashing straight to 3rd-man to be caught. Parthiv benefit from a stay of execution as the release was called a no-ball for height, and received another life when Pietersen dropped him at fine-leg in the next over.
The little keeper-batsman was lastly caught by Jayewardene at deep square leg. Bharat Chipli throws his bat roughly for a precious 25, massacring Ajit Agarwal for boundaries to take the score past 150, before Morne Morkel return to clean up the tail. The South Africa fast had Abhhishek Jhunjhunwala caught after, while Dale Steyn hit his countryman directly to Sehwag at cover.
The sub-160 total may just have tested Delhi, especially after the early loss of 3 wickets, but Petersen’s blazing, albeit chancy, hundred ensured that the home team romped home with 5 balls to spare.
Man of the match:
Kevin Pietersen
