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Centurion - The Delhi Daredevils, who have shown that they are one of the teams to beat in the second Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament, cruised to a comfortable six-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers at Supersport Park on Thursday.
It was the first defeat for the Chargers, who are led by Australian legend, Adam Gilchrist.
Tillekeratne Dilshan hit a massive six off Fidel Edwards to take the Daredevils to victory with eight balls to spare. The six also brought up his 50, which came off 46 balls and included four boundaries and three sixes.
The Daredevils, chasing 149 to win, were never in any trouble, even though they lost prolific run scorers Virender Sehwag (17) and local lad AB de Villiers (5) in the first five overs. Gautam Gambhir fell to Shoib Maqsusis with the scorer on 49, but Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik, with a partnership of 79, kept the Daredevils in the chase. Karthik was eventually out leg before wicket to Pragyan Ohja for 41 off 30 balls in the 18th over, but although he showed his disappointment as he left the field with an angry swish of his bat, he had done enough to see his team home.
Earlier, West Indian Dwayne Smith smashed 48 off 28 balls to help the Deccan Chargers to 148 for nine. Smith and Tirumalasetti Suman put on 65 off 34 deliveries for the fifth wicket to get the Chargers out of a somewhat rocky position.
Australian Dirk Nannes struck two massive blows for the Delhi Daredevils in his first two overs, getting the wickets of Adam Gilchrist (8) and Herschelle Gibbs (0). Rohit Shama and Azhar Bilakhia took the Chargers through to 50, but then both lost their wickets within three balls of each other, and it took Smith and Suman to restore some respectability to the Chargers innings.
As the Chargers tried to push the run rate up, wickets tumbled once again, with the Daredevils piling on the pressure. Suman was caught by AB de Villiers off Pradeep Sangwan, and Smith was caught by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori off Ashish Nehra for 48. His innings included five fours and two sixes.
Shoib Maqsusi was run out by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik without scoring in the 19th over, and two wickets fell off the last two balls of the innings, with Venugopal Rao bowled by Nehra for 16 and Pragyan Ohja run out by Vettori for one.
