Match 37: Delhi Daredevils Win! Mishra takes Hat-Trick!

The second hat-trick of the IPL was taken by Mishra off Delhi Daredevils. The last over needed 15 for Hyderabad Deccan Chargers with 4 wickets in hand. Virendra Sehwag once again showed his belief in the spinners and this time he gave it to Amit Mishra.

Ravi Teja was caught at the long off boundary by Shoaib Malik of the first ball;
Ohja was caught at covers by Sehwas when he tried to slog;

RP Singh was stumped by Karthik, trying to come down the track and the ball was pitched short and kept low, where Dinesh Karthik did the rest;

Fourth ball was again a stumpin gchance to remove Sarvesh Kumar, but Karthik missed it to give four in a row to Mishra;

The remaining two balls went for a single and Mishra gave 12 run victory to Delhi Daredevils, keeping them in the tournament.

Man of the Match List

Points Table

Earlier, put into bat, Delhi lost the captain and dangerous batsman Virendra Sehwag in the first over last ball, caught at third man for a second duck.

But, Gambhir and Dhawan did not stop scoring the runs at 8 runs per over in the power play. At the end of 6 overs, Delhi were 48 for 1. Gambhir struck two continuous sixes and a four four of RP Singh. This really showed that despite losing the wicket of Sehwag, the team was going against the bowlers.

They both played sensibly and were picking ones and twos and fours in the bad balls. At the end of 10 overs, Delhi were 76 for 1 with Gambhir batting on 44 and Dhawan on 28.

Gambhir reached his 50 in 34 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes.

Gambhir hit 2 fours in the 13th over bowled by Sarvesh Kumar and in the 14th over bowled by Afridi costed 18 runs to the Deccan Chargers. Gambhir hit a 2 and a six and then Dhawan hit 2 fours and reached his 50 in 37 balls with 7 fours.

End of 15 overs, Delhi were 138 for 1. With 9 more wickets in hand, there was a high chance that they can go beyond 200.

Gambhir got out in the 2nd ball of the 16th over. He came down the track off Ojha, and left the ball pitched on the leg stump. Though it was called a wide, Gilchrist stumped him out for 79 off 48 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes.

Maharoof hit two sixes--one in RP Singh's over and then in Ojha's over. He was caught by Sharma off Ojha for 19 in 11 balls with 2 sixes.

Dilshan hit a four of the last ball of the 18th over to take the score to 171 for 3. Vijaykumar bowled a very good 19th over and he gave just 9 runs including a six over square leg.

The last over bowled by RP Singh helped Delhi to add 14 runs including two fours. Dilshan was out in the fifth ball, run out by Gilchrist for 16 off 6 balls with 2 fours and a six.

Delhi ended with 194 for 4 in 20 overs. Vijaykumar was the pick of the bowlers with 1 for 24 of 4 overs.

Afridi opened the innings for the first time in this IPL. At least he has been given a chance to play the full quota. He proved that he is worth opening the innings.

Gilchrist and Afridi hit a four each in the first over bowled by McGrath. Prbably, the only match were he gave 10 runs in the first over. The 2nd over bowled by Mohammad Asif added 2 more fours to Gilly and Deccan had a good start with 21 on the board in 2 overs.

Gilly was caught by Dilshan off McGrath. He smashed it through mid-off where Dilshan dived and took a brilliant catch.

Asif again proved costly by giving 17 runs in the 4th over. Afridi hit a four and later in the over, Gibbs hit a four and a six.

McGrath was hit for two sixes by Gibbs and then a four by Afridi to end that over with 17 runs--most costly by McGrath. End of 5 overs, Deccan were 61 for 1, going comfortably at 12 runs per over. Afridi was hitting the ball hard and clearing boundaries. He hit another six in the 6th over bowled by Maharoof.

The break through came in the 7th over, first ball, bowled by Mishra. The ball was pitched on the off and spun, Afridi trying to hit it over long off, didn't time it well and the ball raised a little higher than expected. The ball went in the air towards cover where de Villiers, the substitute in this match caught it easily. Afridi scored 33 off 14 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes.

Gibbs got out in the 9th over, bowled by Mishra for 22. At the end of 10 overs, Deccan Chargers were 84 for 3, requiring 111 from 60 balls.

Styris couldn't find his touch in this match. But, Rohit Sharma proved his class one more time. He hit two sixes off Bhatia in the 12th over.

Trying to scoop the ball over fine leg, Rohit missed the ball and lost his stump. Crucial break through was provided by Maharoof.

Venugopal, the newly turned dangerous batsman joined Styris. End of 15 overs, Deccan were 128 for 4 requiring 67 for 30 balls.

The 16th over added 9 runs including a four by Styris. The 17th over added two more fours to Styris and the last ball went for a four between third man and point.

43 runs from 18 balls. Maharoof got Styris, caught at long-on by de Villiers for 29 off 28 balls with 2 fours. But, Venugopal continued his fight with a six, four and a six to finish the over with 18 runs.

25 from 12 balls, the match is still open. McGrath took the wicket of Venugopal, caught at long on. I think with this wicket, the hopes of Deccan Chargers would have gone. The most dangerous batsman is gone and McGrath has used his experience through an inswing delivery.

Ravi Teja hit a six over point in the 5th ball to keep the match alive. Last over, 15 to win, 4 wickets in hand.

Amit Mishra took 3 wickets in the first three balls and restricted Deccan Chargers with 2 runs in that over. He was chosen as the man of the match.

Match 37
Venue: Delhi
Date: May 15, 2008
Teams: Delhi Daredevils and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers
Captains: Virendra Sehwag and Adam Gilchrist
Toss: Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and decided to field
Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 12 runs
Man of the Match: Amit Mishra off Delhi Daredevils (India)
Points: Delhi Daredevils-2; Hyderabad Deccan Chargers-0
Score:

Delhi Daredevils 194 for 4 in 20 overs (G Gambhir 79, V Sehwag 0, S Dhawan 68 not out, MF Maharoof 19, TM Dilshan 16, MK Tiwary 4 not out, Extras-8 (lb 3, wide 5), DP Vijaykumar 4-0-24-1, RP Singh 4-0-50-0, PM Sarvesh Kumar 3-0-24-0, SB Styris 4-0-33-0, Y Venugopal Rao 2-0-23-0, Shaid Afridi 1-0-18-0, PP Ojha 2-0-19-2) beat Hyderabad Deccan Chargers 182 for 9 in 20 overs (AC Gilchrist 14, Shahid Afridi 33, HH Gibbs 22, RG Sharma 35, SB Styris 29, Y Venugopal Rao 34, DB Ravi Teja 9, RP Singh 1, PP Ojha 0, DP Vijaykumar 1 not out, PM Sarvesh Kumar 1 not out, Extras-3 (lb 1, wide 2), GD McGrath 4-0-42-2, Mohammad Asif 4-0-51-0, MF Maharoof 4-0-39-2, A Mishra 4-0-17-5, R Bhatia 4-0-32-0)

Man of the Match List

Points Table

Match 28: Chennai Wins Last Ball Thriller! Takes Revenge!

What a win for Chennai Super Kings? They have taken revenge and can be happy that they have gained two more points to move up one place in the points table.

Last over required 15 runs to win. Shewag already conceeded 22 runs in one of his overs, choose Shoaib Malik to bowl the last over. The new batsman Gony was facing and he hit a six off the first ball over mid wicket to bring down the target to 9 off 5 balls.

Shoaib thoght Gony would come down the track and hence bowled a faster one way outside the off just to be called wide. Target now is 8 off 5 balls.

The next ball took the outside edge when Gony tried to hit it over long on. The ball beat the third man and went for a four. Target new is 4 off 4 balls.

Gony scored a sing of the next ball to bring it down to 3 off 3 balls. Badrniath got the strike. He chipped the ball over extra covers for two runs. Easy for Chennai now, everyone thought--1 off 2 balls.

Badrinath played the yorker length delivery straight to bowler. Tension everywhere. If it is a tie, the teams would have to bowl at the wicket.

Fielders were brought inside the circle and one fielder was placed in mid wicket. Badri stepped down and hit it in air wide off midwicket just to escape from the fielder. The diving fielder could not catch it and they run and win! The closest match of the tournament so far.

Chennai made few changes in the team--Nitni, Patel, Anirudh Srikanth were out. Amarnath, Balaji, Kapugedera were brought in. Delhi made one change--Manoj Tiwari in for Rajat Bhatia.

Earlier, winning the toss and asking Delhi to bat, Dhoni should feel happy for restricting them to less than 200. Both the in-form batsmen opened the innings for Delhi--Shewag and Gambhir. Though Shewag was not timing the ball well as his shots did not go well as he did it in the previous match against Chennai, Delhi still managed to maintain a good run rate.

Shewag hitting just 3 fours got out in the last ball of the 5th over bowled by Gony of a beautiful Yorker on the off stump.

In the next over, de Villers was out on his first ball, bowled by Morkel. It was a good inswinger pitched on the yorker length and de Villiers missed the line and the ball uprooted the stump. At the end of 6 overs, Delhi were 50 for 2.

Gambhir initiated the momentum hitting at least one four in each over. At the end of 10 overs, Delhi were 83 for 2. The advantage Delhi had was the wickets in hand. They did not lose wickets often and were scoring steadily.

Laxmipathi Balaji, back after 2 years did not bowl to his full capacity, but he bowled well. He took two wickets in his four overs giving away 35 runs.

Gambhir reached his 50 with a six of Gony. He took 35 bals to achieve this milestone. Gambhir hit 3 continous fours of Amarnath in the 15th over. This over added 14 to the score and took it to 133 for 2 in 15 overs.

The 3rd wicket partnership was a record 121 runs in 76 balls. Kapuedera conceeded 15 runs in the 17th over. Dhawan hit two fors and Gambhir hit a four.

Balaji finally provided the break through in the 18th over last ball. He had Gambhir caught at point by Badrinath. He scored 80 in 49 balls with 11 fours and a six.

After that wickets started falling regularly. Dhwawan was out in 19th over for a wonderful 59. It came off 46 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes. Shoaib Malik was out in the first ball of the 20th over. With two fours and 3 singles, Delhi ended their innings.

The chase started very well. Vidyut started with a four of the first ball from McGrath and hit pull over mid wicket for another four. He hit another 2 fours in the next over bowled by Mohammad Asif and Fleming scored a four.

Good thing they did was not losing the wicket. At the end of 5 overs, Chennai were 42 for no loss.

Mahesh bowled the 6th over. Vidyut hit a six and a four and then Fleming hit him for 2 more overs. This over added 20 runs to the score and at the end of power play, Chennai were 62 for no loss.

Sangwan broke partnership immediately after the power play. The pull went straight to the fielder. He scored 40 off 23 balls with 6 fours and a six.

Dhoni promoted himself rightly for the 3rd position. He doesn't want to lose wickets and keep the scoreboard moving.

Fleming was going well at one end and Dhoni, to start with was struggling to hit boundaries. Fleming got out in the 10th over for a well made 44 off 28 balls with 7 fours.

Raina did not last long. He gave an easy catch to point. He scored 1. Morkel joined Dhoni and they both played well, but the fall of the two wickets made them cautious.

At the end of 13 overs, Chennai were 115 for 3, needing 73 from 7 overs.

Shewag's over was the turning point and gave all the confidence to Chennai. Morkel hit him for 3 continous sixes and a four. The first six over mid wicket was a big six and then over bowler's head and the third six was over midwicket again. The four was over long off. The target was revised to 50 from 6 overs.

The momentum was not continued. In the next over, poor run selection had Morkel run out. Morkel played left to McGrath who was trying to stop the ball follow up, but he missed it. Shewag covered him, picked the ball and hit direct at the stump to send Morkel, the danger man who hit 22 runs in the preivous over.

Morkel scored 30 off 15 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes. End of 15 overs, Chennai were 142 for 4, requiring 46 from 30 balls.

Asif bowled the 16th over well by giving just 6 runs. Followed by McGrath, who gave just 7 runs. With 3 more overs, 33 runs needed.

Dhonit hit a four of the last ball of the 18th over bowled by Asif. That over had 11 runs for Chennai. 22 of 12 balls.

Dhoni was out the first ball, caught brilliantly in the long on. DeVilliers came running and did a forward dive to send back Dhoni for 33 off 33 balls with 3 fours.

Next ball, another wicket for Mahesh. Kapugedera was out in the same fashion, but in long off, caught by Dhawan. Two wickets in two balls. Chennai needed 22 in 10 balls.

Badrinath hit a four of the fourth ball and the last two balls were singles. Last over required 15.

Shoaib's over had 6 by Gony, wide, four, single, two, no run and a single to give victory to Chennai in the last ball of the 20th over.

Dhoni, who played sensibly in the middle overs was declared man of the match.

With this win, Chennai moved to third place and Delhi into 4th place.

Match 28
Venue: Delhi
Date: May 8, 2008
Teams: Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings
Captains: Virendra Shewag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Toss: Chennai Super Kings and decided to field
Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 4 wickets with 0 balls remaining
Man of the Match: MS Dhoni off Chennai Super Kings (India)
Points: Chennai Super Kings-2; Delhi Daredevils-0
Score:
Delhi Daredevils 187 for 5 in 20 overs (G Gambhir 80, V Shewag 23, AB de Villiers 0, S Dhawan 59, Shoaib Malik 2, KD Karthik 6 not out, MK Tiwari 5 not out, Extras—12 (lb 6, wide 4, nb 2), M Gony 4-0-36-1, JA Morkel 4-0-35-2, M Muralitharan 4-0-25-0, P Amarnath 3-0-35-0, L Balaji 4-0-35-2, CK Kapugedera 1-0-15-0) lost to Chennai Super Kings 188 for 6 in 20 overs (S Vidyut 40, SP Fleming 44, MS Dhoni 33, SK Raina 1, JA Morkel 30, CK Kapugedera 8, S Badrinath 8 not out, M Gony 13 not out, Extras-11 (b 1, lb 4, wide 6), GD McGrath 4-0-23-0, Mohammad Asif 4-0-33-1, VY Mahesh 4-0-40-2, P Sangwan 4-0-29-2, Shoaib Malik 2-0-28-0, V Sehwag 2-0-30-0)

Match 17: Delhi Daredevils beat Bangalore Royal Challengers!

In a close finish, Delhi beat Bangalore by 10 runs. This is the 3rd consecutive loss to Bangalore. They are now in badly need of a vicotry after their loss to Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. They have only one win in the table against Mumbai Indians.

Put into bat, Delhi started the innings well. They are one of the sides with a very good opening pair. Both the players are regular openers and they have opened for India.

Gambhir and Shewag added 53 for the first wicket before Shewag was out for 24. He normally starts well but is not capitalizing on it and converting it to a big score.

Gambhir hit 3 continuous fours of Zaheer Khan in the 2nd over and that provided lot of confidence to Delhi. He hit two more fours of Steyn in the next over. Shewag blasted Zaheer Khan a six and two fours in the firt three deliveries of the 4th over. Last ball of the fifth over was the break through over for Bangalore in the form of run out. Playing to point and started well, Shewag also responded, but direct hit by Ross found him well short of his crease, not even referred to TV umpire.

Gambhir was playing his usual T20 innings with more than run-a-ball-innings. Dhawan who joined Gambhir scored a useful 50. When your top order scores, you need not worry. He hit 3 huge sixes--2 off Kallis and one of Sunil Joshi. The 13th over bowled by Joshi costed 19 runs with Dhawan scoring a six and Gambhir contributing with a six and a four.

End of 14 overs, Delhi was almost scoring 10 runs per over. They were 138 for 1. Kallis provided the break through, though he went for a six and four. Dravid took a stunning catch at mid wicket, but the usual celebrations were not there

At the end of 15 overs, Delhi were 151 for 2, going strong with just above 10 runs per over. Shoaib didn't stay long, as well as Dinesh Karthik. Kallis uprooted and in fact broke the stumps of Karthik. That is when it dipped a little bit at 178 for 4 in 18 overs.

Gambhir was out in the 19th over for 84. He crossed his 50 of 36 balls with 7 fours. He was caught by Praveen Kumar off Zaheer Khan. His 84 came off 54 balls with 11 fours and a six. At the end of 20th over, Delhi reached 191 for 5, giving a touch chance to Bangalore.

Bangalore never looked like winning this game from the start. McGrath dismissed Praveen Kumar caught at mid wicket in the first over the innings.

Taylor and Jaffer batted well and their job is to make the scoreboard moving without losing the wicket. Taylor hit two hours in the 2nd over and a six of McGrath in the 3rd over and then anotehr 6 in the fourth over bowled by Mohammad Asif. Jaffer hit another six in the same over. That gave confidence to Bangalore, but didn's last long.

McGrath gave two break throughs in his 3rd over which was the 5th of the innings. He went for a 4 in the first ball, but he dismissed Taylor in the 2nd. He was caught by Dhawan while trying to swing over mid wicket. In the last ball, Jaffer mistimed the pull shot of a short ball deliery and was caught by Mahesh at mid-on. Two wickets in one over put Bangalore in the back seat.

Kallis and Dravid have to stay in the crease till the next 10 overs. They did not score even one bounday in two overs. At the end of the 10th over, Bangalore were 83 for 3, requiring 109 in the next 10.

The next four overs Bangalore scored more than 10 runs an over--14, 10, 11, 12, adding 47 reducing the target to 62 off 36 balls.

Good bowling change by Shewag when he brought in Vettori, who conceeded 4 runs in the 15th over. That put pressure on the batsman and McGrath did the rest. He picked Kallis in his last over by giving 6 runs. The next over by Mahesh was a good one for Delhi as he gave away only 4 runs.

With 48 off 18 balls, the task was becoming tougher and tougher. Though two international stars are in the middle, they were not able to have one or two good overs. 18th over added 13 to the board with 2 fours by Kallis.

With 35 requiring in 12 balls, Kallis got out in the last ball bowled by Vettori for 54 off 44 balls with 6 fours and a six. He gave away just 5 runs to make the target 30 in 6 balls.

Captain Shewag picked the ball for Delhi and he went for a six of the first ball. It was an easy catch, but it went through the hands of Bhatia at long on. It toched the fingers but it fell on the boundary rope for a six. 24 off 5, but only singles were scored in the next two balls to make the target 22 off 3.

Boucher scored a six and a four in the next two deliveries, but it was a too late. Last ball required 12 and Boucher scored a single giving victory to Delhi Daredevils.

McGrath was declared man of the match for his wonderful spell of 4-0-29-4, especially picking 2 wickets in the first over.

Match 17
Venue: Delhi
Date: April 30, 2008
Teams: Delhi Daredevils v. Bangalore Royal Challengers
Captains: Virendra Shewag and Rahul Dravid
Toss: Bangalore Royal Challengers and decided to field
Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 10 runs
Man of the Match: Glenn McGrath of Delhi Daredevils (Australia)
Points: Delhi Daredevils-2; Bangalore Royal Challengers-0
Score:
Delhi Daredevils 191 for 5 in 20 overs (G Gambhir 86, V Sehwag 24, S Dhawan 50, Shoaib Malik 6, KD Karthik 2, MK Tiwary 11 not out, R Bhatia 8, Extras 4--lb 2, wide 1, nb 1, DW Steyn 4-0-29-1, Z Khan 4-0-42-1, P Kumar 4-0-24-0, R Vinay Kumar 2-0-25-0, JH Kallis 4-0-39-2, V Kohli 1-0-11-0, SB Joshi 1-0-19-0) beat Bangalore Royal Challengers 181 for 5 in 20 overs (P Kumar 6, W Jaffer 10, LRPL Taylor 29, JH Kallis 54, R Dravid 38, MV Boucher 31 not out, V Kohli 1 not out, Extras 12--b 1, lb 10, nb 1, GD McGrath 4-0-29-4, Mohammad Asif 4-0-42-0, VY Mahesh 4-0-28-0, DL Vettori 4-0-19-1, R Bhatia 1-0-14-0, Shoaib Malik 1-0-8-0, V Sehwag 2-0-30-0)

Match 3: Delhi Daredevils Registers Win!

Delhi Daredevils lead by Virendra Shewag registered a 9 wicket win over Rajasthan Royals lead by Shane Warne. It was an easy target for Delhi Daredevils and they did not fail in meeting the target.

Except for winning the toss, nothing went right for coach and skipper of Rajasthan Royals Shane Warne. Wickets fell at regular intervals and the team was not able to bounce back. Struggling at 47 for 4 in the 8th over, they were never able to come back, though one or two good overs would have helped them. Jadeja was the highest scorer with 29 off 23 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes. Salunkhe scored a quick fire 26 off 20 balls, which helped Rajasthan to put a decent total.

McGrath, who opened the bowling for Delhi, was as usual at his best. Maharoof was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 11 in 4 overs. Bhatia also bowled well and finished with 2 for 17 in his quota of four overs.

Though bowling was good, it was poor running and calling between the wickets that put Rajasthan really on the back foot. Yousuf Pathan and Shane Watson were both run out for 10 and 21 respectively.

Chasing an easy target, Delhi lost skipper Shewag for 12, bowled by Watson. His 12 had 3 fours in 3 balls and he was out on the 4th ball. He was out on the 4th ball of the 2nd over and by then, Delhi reached 20.

Gambhir and Dhawan played well and hitting in the air and driving for few fours. They both reached 50 and lead Delhi to gain 2 points. Gambhir reached his 50 in 37 balls with 7 fours and a six. Dhawan reached his 50 in 41 balls with 8 fours.

Maharoof of Delhi Daredevils was adjudged man of the match for his wonderful bowling.

Match 3
Venue: Delhi
Date: April 19, 2008
Teams: Delhi Daredevils v. Rajasthan Royals
Captains: Virendra Shewag and Shane Warne
Toss: Rajasthan Royals and decided to bat
Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 9 wickets with 29 balls remaining
Man of the Match: MF Maharoof of Delhi Daredevils (Sri Lanka)
Points: Delhi Daredevils-2; Rajasthan Royals-0
Score:
Rajasthan Royals 129 for 8 in 20 overs (Kohli 7, YK Pathan 10, SR Watson 21, M Kaif 9, DS Lehmann 1, RA Jadeja 29, M Rawat 2, D Salunkhe 26 not out, SK Warne 14, SK Trivedi 3 not out, Extras 7--b 1, lb 3, wide 3, GD McGrath 4-1-21-1, B Geeves 4-0-41-0, MF Maharoof 4-0-11-2, R Bhatia 4-0-17-2, DL Vettori 4-0-35-1) lost to Delhi Daredevils 132 for 1 in 15.1 overs (Gambhir 58 not out, Shewag 12, S Dhawan 52 not out, Extras 10--wide 10, JMM Patel 3-0-25-0, SR Watson 4-0-31-1, SK Trivedi 3-0-32-0, SK Warne 2-0-16-0, YK Pathan 2.1-0-17-0, D Salunkhe 1-0-11-0)