Challengers lose again, Delhi go up to 12
May 20th, 2008Mumbai: Suneer Chowdhury
A Preview: Delhi DareDevils were in a desperate situation before today’s match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. They had had 10 points off eleven matches, and with only three matches to play for them, an all win record from now on would take them to sixteen. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, had 12 off ten, thus would need only two wins off their four matches to equal Delhi even if they win all! This only meant one thing, it was a must win situation for the DareDevils. At the other end of the spectrum, one had the Bangalore Royal Challengers sitting with four points for some time now, showing no urgency to move anywhere, but down the points table.
Spin of coin: Delhi DareDevils won the toss and elected to field first on a pitch that was supposed to play slower and lower as the game progressed. His reasoning would have been simple, it is easier to chase in a twenty over encounter when you have the target in sight, than actually setting one.
Compositions: There were about half a dozen changes made in all, to both the sides, which was a record of sorts. For the Delhi DareDevils, Amit Mishra was very surprisingly rested after a brilliant performance earlier and in came Yo Mahesh, where as Shoaib Malik made way for A.B. deVilliers. The Royal Challengers’ challenge had ended, and hence they decided to bring in some new players as well, Dale Steyn, Sreevats Goswami, B. Akhil and Bharat Chipli making it into the playing XI.
The Review: The biggest problem facing Bangalore Royal Challengers is their opening partnership, and hence it was no big surprise to see their eighth opening pair of the tournament walk out to face up the bowling, in the form of Jacques Kallis and Bharat Chipli. Chipli did not last long, but it was the second wicket partnership of Kallis and Under-19 ‘keeper and debutant, Sreevats Goswami that stabilized the innings. Kallis was dismissed by Farveez Maharoof and was soon followed by Dravid’s dismissal, but Sreevats duly completed his half century, making him the youngest in the tournament to do so. However, he soon departed in a bid to up the ante, and the Challengers lost wickets at regular interval to stutter to 130/7 in 19 overs. It was here that Misbah-ul-Haq bashed 24 runs off Rajat Bhatia to propel the Challengers’ score to 154/7 in the 20. McGrath was his miserly self with figures of 4-0-15-2, but Maharoof went one better, his four overs yielding only 13 runs for the two wickets.
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Delhi’s reply was exactly as their team name suggests, ‘daredevilish’. It was Gautam Gambhir who continued his good form – to reach 500 runs in the tournament – but Sehwag quickly joined in the party and left his partner way behind. The powerplay – of six overs – went for 71 without a loss of any wickets, where as the next over went for 19, before Sehwag cut one straight to the point’s throat. Delhi was 90/1 at this stage in only 7 overs! It was only the wicket of Gambhir and the subsequent introduction of the spinners that stemmed the flow of scoring to such an extent, that the batsmen begun to feel the pressure and soon succumbed to it. Dilshan was stumped off Kumble, where as de Villiers edged one off Steyn. When Dinesh Karthik fell at the score of 132, the DareDevils still required 22 runs of 27 balls. They did stutter a bit, but in the end, reached their target with five wickets and 10 deliveries to spare.
The MoM: For a change, we had a played from the losing side win the Man-of-the-Match award, Sreevats Goswami winning it for his well crafted 50 along with three dismissals – a catch, stumping and a run-out!
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Tags: AMit mishra, bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Farveez Maharoof, gambhir, Gautam Gambhir, ipl match report, Jacques Kallis, Mcgrath, royal challengers, sehwag, Shoaib malik, steynPosted in IPL - Bangalore Royal Challengers, IPL - Delhi Daredevils, IPL News |