By BV Swagath
Delhi Daredevils collected a consolation victory over the lowly placed Pune Warriors at the new stadium in Raipur. Both the Daredevils and the Pune Warriors are sitting right at the bottom of the points table with just the two wins in 9 matches.
Asked to bat first, Delhi Daredevils were getting a fine partnership between Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand which was ended in the 10th over with the score at 68 for 2. Sehwag (28 from 26 balls) was dismissed gloving a pull off a Dinda short ball down the legside. After his exit, Pune got two more wickets in succession to reduce Delhi to 96 for 4 in 13.5 overs.
Pune’s hopes of restricting Delhi to a below par total were quashed by a brilliant knock of 51 not out from David Warner which came from 25 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes. Kedar Jadhav chipped in with a cameo of 25 from 19 balls to help Daredevils post a healthy total of 164 for 5. Ashok Dinda was the most successful bowler for Pune taking 3 for 31.
The visitors got a perfect start of 76 in 10.2 overs from its openers Robin Uthappa and Skipper Aaron Finch. But the problem was that both of them got out in the same over to bring Delhi back in the contest. First to go was Uthappa (37 from 33 balls) who was caught at fine leg and Finch (37 from 33 balls) followed him after being wrongly given caught behind down the legside. Irfan Pathan who bowled a first over maiden got these two big wickets.
The run chase was set up nicely for the pair of Yuvraj and Luke Wright with Pune at 78 for 2 in 11 overs. Both the batsmen got going to take their team closer to victory but just when it mattered lost their wickets at the wrong time. Luke Wright (19 from 18 balls) departed in the 18th over at 128 for 3 after lofting a slower one from Umesh Yadav. Yuvraj (31 from 24 balls) was dismissed by the same bowler who got him pulling a bouncer to deep mid wicket to leave PWI at 130 for 4 in 18 overs. There was no real firepower left for Pune to get the remaining 35 runs from the last two overs. The visitors finished with 149 for 4 to lose the game by 15 runs.
Toss and Teams: Pune Warriors led by Aaron Finch have won the toss and asked the Delhi Daredevils to bat first at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (C), Virender Sehwag, Unmukt Chand, David Warner, Ben Rohrer, Kedar Jadhav (Wicket Keeper), Irfan Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Morne Morkel, Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav
Pune Warriors: Robin Uthappa (WK), Aaron Finch (C), Yuvraj Singh, Steven Smith, Luke Wright, Abhishek Nayar, Mithun Manhas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Rahul Sharma, Kane Richardson
