Deccan seal easy win over Delhi

Deccan Chargers 168 for 4 (Sohal 62, Sangakkara 49) beat 

Delhi Daredevils 152 for 7 (Warner 51, Harmeet 2-27) by 16 runs 

A disciplined Deccan Chargers lifted themselves from near the basement of the IPL table to fourth place with an important win over fellow strugglers Delhi Daredevils on a slow-and-low track at Feroz Shah Kotla. Their stand-out performers were not the marquee names but unsung opener Sunny Sohal and medium-pacer Harmeet Singh, playing his first match of the season.

Sohal put on a powerful partnership with Kumar Sangakkara to seemingly set Deccan on their way to their highest total of the tournament, but Delhi shackled them in the second half of the innings to keep them to a more-manageable 168. Harmeet, however, removed two of Delhi's three lethal hitters cheaply to swing the game in Deccan's favour.

Deccan began brightly with a beautiful Sohal cover drive for four off the first ball, and Shikhar Dhawan belted two more boundaries in the over. Delhi hit back as Irfan Pathan had Dhawan chopping on, but that brought together Sangakkara and Sohal, who put together Deccan's best passage of play in a 92-run stand.

Sangakkara was his usual elegant self, timing the ball wonderfully as he cut and drove the loose deliveries on offer. He was at his most punishing against the spinners, welcoming Shahbaz Nadeem's left-arm spin with a six over midwicket, and two more leg-side boundaries. Yogesh Nagar, playing his first game of the season, was also taken for two extra cover boundaries. Both times Sangakkara teased Morne Morkel on the boundary, making him dive to his left, and then to his right; but both times the ball eluded the fielder.

Sohal also didn't play a typical brute-force Twenty20 innings. His 62 was sprinkled with dabs to third man and clever glides past fine leg, besides some textbook drives. It was only once he reached his half-century that he brought out the big shots, smashing Morkel for a six near the sightscreen and then blasting him through the covers.

At 103 for 1 after 11 overs, even 200 was within Deccan's sights. Ashok Dinda, though, had Sangakkara miscuing to cover, where he was taken by a back-pedalling Aaron Finch, and another smart catch from Finch sent back Sohal a couple of overs later. Though the big-hitters, Cameron White and Dan Christian, were at the crease, Deccan couldn't maintain the pace. There were only three boundaries in the final six overs as Delhi squeezed the runs with some accurate bowling.

Delhi would have been satisfied at the halfway stage, and soon the home crowd was at its most vocal as Virender Sehwag unleashed three successive fours off the second over of Delhi's chase. The strong start was undone by Harmeet, who removed Sehwag and Finch in his first two overs, with Christian nipping out Naman Ojha in between.

The Delhi innings was a stop-start affair, with bursts of big scoring sandwiching prolonged quiet spells. David Warner and Venugopal Rao muscled 30 runs off two overs to get to 71 for 3 after nine and revive Delhi hopes, but the return of Dale Steyn and the introduction of Amit Mishra choked the runs.

On a track providing turn, and where shot-making was becoming difficult, Venugopal fell to a superbly judged, leaping overhead catch by Christian at long-off, and Warner's less-than-fluent innings ended with a slog to deep midwicket in the 15th over. Delhi's slender hopes now rested on Irfan Pathan and James Hopes but neither could get going and despite Yogesh Nagar's cameo, Deccan coasted to victory.

Delhi win, trump Yuvi heroics

Navi Mumbai: Delhi Daredevils' unfancied batting line-up pulled off a thrilling chase, upsetting the higher-placed Pune Warriors in a high-scoring match. Venugopal Rao and Aaron Finch added 47 in four overs in the dying stages of the game to pull Delhi back from the brink. It is Delhi's first win in the tournament after two losses and Pune's first loss after two wins.

Pune had posted 187-5 with power-packed fifties from Jesse Ryder and skipper Yuvraj Singh, who also took four wickets to derail Delhi's chase. But Venugopal and Finch's sustained hitting took Delhi close after which James Hopes hit Ryder for a six and four in the final over to cap the chase.

Delhi had been provided a robust start of 75 in seven overs by David Warner (37) and skipperVirender Sehwag (46), who finally provided a meaty contribution after two small scores earlier.

The DY Patil pitch is quicker than the others in the tournament, and Delhi brought in Umesh Yadav for the match. An incredibly wayward first over followed. Yadav bowled short on both sides of the wicket, left-hander or right-hander, and went for four fours in the over that produced 21 runs in all.

Resultantly, Ryder blasted his way to 50 after being dropped on 46 by Ashok Dinda. It set up the innings for the big-hitting Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj. Uthappa made only four, but Yuvraj had a fantastic time, making 66 in 33.

In the final over, he pounded a four and three sixes off Dinda to end the innings. During the chase, Yuvraj dismissed Irfan Pathan and Manan Ojha and was on a hat-trick in his first over. As Delhi got closer to the target, he dismissed Finch and Venugopal in his final over. Oddly, it still wasn't enough.

The disappointing aspect of the bigger picture is that Irfan, who had been recovering from injury last year, has still not found any sort of form in this tournament. He has taken one wicket in three matches. He has bled runs. With the bat, he's made a first-ball duck against Mumbai, and a six-ball 10 against Rajasthan.

Today Irfan was promoted to No. 3 at David Warner's fall. With 13 overs and 113 runs remaining, Irfan had time to bat and a target to attain. He made a 16-ball 14 which didn't help Delhi's fight with the mounting required rate.

Delhi have one of the weakest-looking squads in the tournament, and Irfan is one of their senior players. A turnaround of fortunes for Irfan could not only propel Delhi, but also propel Indian cricket.

Delhi Daredevils 190 for 7 (Warner 46, Yuvraj 4-29) beat 

Pune Warriors 187 for 5 (Ryder 60, Yuvraj 66*) by three wickets

Rajsthan Royals complete comprehensive win

Rajasthan Royals 152 for 4 (Botha 39*, Dravid 38) beat 
Delhi Daredevils 151 for 6 (Rao 60, Warner 54, Warne 2-17) by six wickets

Rajasthan Royals executed a well-calibrated chase against an off-colour Delhi Daredevils attack to register their second win in two games and move atop the IPL leaderboard. The senior players soaked up the pressure - Rahul Dravid set up the chase and Johan Botha anchored it - while the youngsters, Ashok Menaria and Ajinkya Rahane, batted with freedom to keep the required-rate under control. Ross Taylor added the finishing touches with his trademark leg-side lashes.

While Rajasthan's batting flowed seamlessly, their bowling was a tale of two halves. Their fortunes were typified by Shaun Tait's four one-over spells. He got rid of Virender Sehwag and Aaron Finch - two parts of Delhi's powerful top-order trinity - in first two overs. David Warner, the third part, survived Tait and saw off a sublime spell from Shane Warne before counter-punching along with Venugopal Rao. Tait was either too short or too full in his final spell, and allowed Delhi to haul themselves from 43 for 4 after 10 overs, to 151. Their bowlers, however, let them down.

"I am used to facing all these fast bowlers." Sehwag's emphatic declaration before the game set up the confrontation with Tait. The encounter was, however, was short. Sehwag cracked his first ball through point but Tait hit back immediately with sheer pace. Taking guard after Sehwag's sizzle and fizzle, Finch barely saw the three thunderbolts - one of them touching 157 kph - that burst through his defences. One over of high impact - one spell out of the way.

Botha and Siddharth Trivedi were not so menacing with the ball, and Tait returned for the fifth over. Finch promptly succumbed to another pacy bouncer, and Tait was off the attack again. Warne struck twice in his first over, nailing Unmukt Chand with a quick dipping legbreak, and Naman Ojha with a slower, looping delivery. Thereafter, Rajasthan let the pressure ease, allowing Warner and Rao to find an escape route. Rao checked in with a couple of controlled boundaries against spin before Warner preyed upon Trivedi's poor lines.

Warner plundered Tait's indiscretions in length for three boundaries in his third over. He reached his 50 by cutting Warne in front of square before handing over the baton to his partner. Rao launched two successive slower balls from Trivedi for sixes over the off side, before Irfan Pathan slugged boundaries off Tait's closing over to hustle Delhi to challenging total.

Dravid ignited the chase with a series of boundaries off Ashok Dinda, but Amit Paunikar missed a wild slog to gift him a wicket. Pathan had shown signs of regaining his famous inswinger in Delhi's first game. Today, however, he resorted to listless offcutters that Dravid pounced upon. With his seamers disappointing, Sehwag resorted to Roelof van der Merwe's spin in the sixth over, and Dravid greeted him with two elegant boundaries. Fifty-seven had come off the Powerplay, and the game was heading Rajasthan's way.

van der Merwe gave Delhi an opening by getting Dravid to edge behind, but Botha and Menaria carried on without a fuss. With a stance and swagger reminiscent of Yuvraj Singh, Menaria camped on the back foot and looked to muscle anything too short or too full over midwicket. He thumped sixes off three consecutive overs before carving Pathan straight to cover. Botha was relentless though, in his new No. 3 avatar, executing paddle sweeps at will and keeping things under control. Rahane kept the flag flying, and though Morne Morkel uprooted his stumps in the 16th over it was too little too late.

Played a maiden after 10 years: Virendra Sehwag

Explosive opener Virender Sehwag said that this was the first time in the last 10 years that he played a maiden over. The Delhi opener played 6 deliveries of fiery pacer Lasith Malinga without scoring a run in their game against Mumbai Indians at Delhi. 

                "Yes, I think after 10 years I played a maiden today. It was a plan. We lost two wickets so I thought let me play Malinga because others may not be able to pick him. We have 10 debutants in Delhi squad and it will take a little time for us to come together," Sehwag said. 

              The Daredevils, playing their first game in the tournament folded for a mere 95 runs thanks to a splendid bowling display by Malinga, who ended up with a five wicket haul. 

"A 140-150 is a good total here, but everything went Mumbai's way." 

                However, the Delhi skipper was confident the team will do better in their future games. "We have a good bowling unit and fielding. I am the only one who have played in the last three IPL. I am sure we will come good in the coming matches," he said. 

Lasith Malinga blows Delhi away & made Easy win to Mumbai

Mumbai Indians 99 for 2 (Tendulkar 46*) beat Delhi Daredevils 95 (Malinga 5-13) by eight wickets

When batsmen face Lasith Malinga, they know what's coming at them: several yorkers, some low full tosses, the odd slower ball. Some might not swing but everything will be aimed at the stumps. Knowledge wasn't power for Delhi Daredevils' batsmen, though, as Malinga ripped through them in two spells, claiming the third-best figures in the IPL. His five-wicket haul helped shoot out Delhi for 95, their second-lowest total, and ruin the contest before the sun had set at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Malinga's performance allowed the Mumbai batsmen to chase in comfortable gear. Davy Jacobs' first stint as Sachin Tendulkar's opening partner was ended early by Morne Morkel and Roelof van der Merwe ran out Ambati Rayudu with a scintillating intercept, slide, turnaround and direct hit from extra cover, but that was it for Delhi. Tendulkar could not be dismissed and without the pressure of a high asking-rate he steered Mumbai to an eight-wicket victory with 19 balls to spare. In a format engineered to produce the exciting finish, this was a mismatch from the fifth over.

Delhi's strength was their top order and in Virender Sehwag and David Warner they possessed the most explosive openers of the tournament. Sehwag began aggressively by launching his first delivery, off Harbhajan Singh, miles in the air only for the ball to fall short of the straight boundary and plug in the outfield. He improved on that attempt the next ball, clearing long-off by a considerable distance, forcing Harbhajan to bowl quicker and flatter.

Enter Malinga, who had been retained by Mumbai, and he re-emphasised his value in no time at all. With his second ball, a pinpoint yorker, Malinga breached Warner's defences. With his fourth, a fast and straight delivery, he hit Unmukt Chand's middle stump.

Chand made the novice error of playing across the line to a Malinga arrow, a mistake Sehwag had committed in the World Cup final. Today Sehwag was watchful, defending Malinga with a straight bat when the line demanded it, but opening the face to guide to the third-man boundary when the width allowed it. He played out the 2011 IPL's first maiden over, seeing off Malinga's second without damage, and set himself to take on the rest of the bowlers.

That did not come to pass, though, for in the fifth over Aaron Finch came down the pitch to Ali Murtaza's left-arm spin, worked the ball off his pads towards short fine leg, and continued running. Sehwag hesitated and then responded, but was beaten by Tendulkar's direct hit. He had swooped on the ball with the agility of a much younger man. It was the decisive moment of the game. Finch did not last long either, slog-sweeping Harbhajan to deep-backward square leg, leaving Delhi on 40 for 4.

Naman Ojha, whose 29 was Delhi's top score, showed a semblance of resistance but his dismissal - caught on the long-off boundary - hastened the end of the innings. Irfan Pathan, bought for $1.9 million and playing his first competitive match in a year, was run out first ball.

And then Malinga returned, and inevitably the yorkers followed. He bowled Venugopal Rao with one, broke Morne Morkel's bat with another before dismissing him with a third next ball. Malinga finished with 5 for 13 - the fifth came with a slower ball - leaving his team with a straightforward chase.