Delhi Daredevils 164 for 5 (Warner 51*, Dinda 3-31) beat Pune Warriors 149 for 4 (Finch 37, Uthappa 37, Yadav 2-24) by 15 runs
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A counter-attack in the middle order from David Warner and a miserly
18th over in the chase from Umesh Yadav brought some relief for Delhi
Daredevils in the form of a victory in the battle of the bottom-placed
teams this season. The win was only their second, as the Pune Warriors
bowlers faltered after making inroads into Daredevils' batting order and
the batsmen struggled to step up when it mattered against some
impressive fast bowling at the death in the chase. Warriors now find
themselves at the bottom of the table in what is a third poor season in a
row.
Raipur is further from Delhi than it is from Pune (1253 as opposed to
1025 kilometres), but on its IPL debut the crowd was overwhelmingly
pro-Daredevils and got the result they desired. Warner restored their
faith in the side with a surge he launched in the 13th over of the
Daredevils innings and retained the tone during a stand of 53 with Kedar
Jadhav that took his side to 164. Yuvraj Singh and Luke Wright looked
on track to chase that down until they ran into Umesh, whose skillful
use of alterations in length and pace accounted for both wickets and all
but consigned Warriors to their seventh defeat.
Warner was charged with the responsibility of leading Daredevils'
recovery after the loss of Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand in a space
of three deliveries. He did that successfully by reserving the harshest
treatment for a spate of poor deliveries offered to him by the Warriors
bowlers, who generously pitched on a length. And he was powerful enough
to comfortably clear boundaries longer than there have been at other
venues this season.
He began with a clean, straight six off legspinner Rahul Sharma, then
pulled IPL debutant Kane Richardson over deep midwicket. Ashok Dinda's
failed attempts at bowling the yorker resulted in three fours drilled
down the ground in one over, before Richardson, in the penultimate over,
was struck, again, over wide long-on and his head. The 19th over cost
21 runs, including another straight six by Jadhav, who, too, was severe
on the length ball. The last five overs yielded 63 runs, 34 of those
from the last two.
Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch have been a productive opening pair and
their 72-run stand gave Warriors a strong platform. Both were dismissed,
Finch albeit unluckily, by deliveries bowled down the leg side by Irfan
Pathan in the 11th over, but Yuvraj and Wright batted fluently. Yuvraj
unleashed a stylish drive and cut off Irfan in his next over, collected a
couple of boundaries past fine leg, while Wright flat-batted the
seamers past the ropes on two occasions.
The stand was worth 50 in 45 balls at the start of the 18th over, when
37 runs were needed. Umesh began with two dot balls to Wright, one of
them a yorker, before slipping in a slower one to deceive the batsman,
who holed out. Yuvraj was only able to score two runs off the next two,
and top-edged one straight to deep square leg when Umesh dug in a short
delivery to finish the over. Steven Smith can be a finisher, but 35 runs
off two overs was a task that proved beyond him.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Siddhartha Talya
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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