Sehwag, Gambhir help Delhi bulldoze their way to victory
An opening partnership of 90 runs is a good beginning. Getting those runs in just seven overs is more than half the work done, especially when the target is a mere 155.
That was how things panned out as the flamboyant-resolute pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir got Delhi off to a brisk start in their chase against Bangalore in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.
Sehwag thumped his way to 47 off 19 deliveries and left-handed Gambhir notched 39 as the home side were left with little chance of improving their disastrous run in the tournament and lost by five wickets.
Sehwag enjoyed playing the pull shot in particular as Delhi made most of the early field restrictions. He struck one six and nine fours and was out playing a cut shot straight to point after taking 19 runs off the preceding five deliveries of a Praveen Kumar over.
Gambhir fell a little later, run out, after having hit five fours in his 31-ball innings. Delhi were pegged back a little as the score read 100-2 and veteran Anil Kumble did pick a couple of wickets as the Bangalore outfit’s spirits picked up, but a fight was not in the offing as the match was decided with 10 balls still to go.
It was the sixth win in 12 matches for Delhi, who are in with a chance of making the semifinals, while no-hopers Bangalore crashed to their ninth defeat in 11 matches.
Earlier, Shreevats Goswami celebrated his birthday a day late with an impressive knock on his IPL debut. The diminutive left-hander, who was part of the India under-19 squad that won the World Cup not too long ago, struck a 42-ball 52 as Bangalore scored 154-7.
'Man of the match' Goswami became the youngest to score a fifty in the tournament, striking one six and seven fours during his cameo. But with Misbah-ul Haq the only other batsman able to clobber the ball around, Bangalore could not get a challenging score on the board.
Delhi bowled a tight line through the innings, except for that last over by Bhatia and Pradeep Sangwan earlier in the day.
Sangwan, an under-19 player who hails from Delhi, let down Sehwag after the captain elected to field. Aussie great Glenn McGrath started the match with a miserly over in which the only run conceded was an overthrow, but Sangwan sprayed the ball over. The left-armer conceded 19 runs with the new ball and 18 when he was brought back during the mid innings and eventually went for 51 off three.
Bangalore, languishing at the bottom of the table and virtually out of the race for the semi-finals, left out Virat Kohli, opener J Arunkumar and Bangladesh spinner Abdur Razzaq while Goswami, India's under-19 wicketkeeper, was included in place of the indisposed Mark Boucher. Dale Steyn, Bharat Chipli and Balachandra Akhil were also drafted in.
Delhi, who lost their previous match against Mohali at home in a rain-truncated fixture, made two changes, bringing in AB de Villiers and Yo Mahesh in place of Shoaib Malik and Amit Mishra.
Teams:
Delhi: Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Rajat Bhatia, Yo Mahesh, Pradeep Sangwan, Glenn McGrath.
Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (captain), Bharat Chipli, Misbah-ul-Haq, Cameron White, Jacques Kallis, Shreevats Goswami, Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble, Balachandra Akhil, Zaheer Khan, Dale Steyn.