Deccan drown in Sehwag deluge

Delhi Daredevils 179 for 6 (Sehwag 119, Ishant 2-16) beat Delhi Daredevils 175 for 5 (Duminy 55, Sangakkara 44, Agarkar 2-29) by four wickets

	Take that, Deccan Chargers © AFP

For a large part of his career, it was tough being Sachin Tendulkar. In the IPL, it's tougher being Virender Sehwag. After having watched his bowlers take wickets off no-balls and his fielders drop sitters, the Delhi Daredevils captain took his frustration out on the Deccan Chargers with a blistering century, his first in Twenty20s. The assault bettered his masterpiece against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, and stunned Deccan into offering him two chances. Sehwag cashed in and drowned them in a flood of boundaries that took the bite out of a challenging total, unmindful of the complete lack of support from his team-mates. The next highest score was James Hopes' 17.

Delhi's bowlers had been profligate in letting Deccan surge to 175, and their top order, barring Sehwag, let the pressure get to them. Aaron Finch, Naman Ojha and Venugopal Rao combusted against seam as Sehwag watched bemused from his end. From 25 for 3 in the sixth over, only Sehwag could have taken Delhi home, and he did it in some style, moving from 8 off 13 balls to 119 off 56, pushing Deccan to the brink of elimination.

Sehwag has made a career out of sticking to his guns regardless of the situation, and his approach today was no different. Two balls after seeing Venugopal Rao top-edge a pull off Ishant Sharma to point, Sehwag shuffled across and glanced a boundary to fine leg. From middle stump. Next over, Travis Birt struggled against Daniel Christian, getting beaten three times in four balls. Sehwag watched as the asking-rate crossed eleven at the end of Christian's over, the seventh.

He broke free in the next over, bowled by IPL debutant Ishan Malhotra. The first ball disappeared over deep square leg, the next over deep midwicket. Two more boundaries followed, and Sehwag looted 23 off the over. As if to dispel the notion that he had targeted just the newcomer, Sehwag plundered 13 off the next over, from Christian.

Sangakkara thought spin, so often Sehwag's strength as well as weakness, would work, and brought on Amit Mishra. Sehwag displayed his strength first ball, dancing down and launching Mishra over the straight boundary. The weakness was on display next ball, as he rushed out again but ended up slicing to sweeper cover. That is when Deccan decided to return the earlier favours, substitute Ankit Sharma clanging a simple chance. Sehwag gladly guided the third ball through third man for four.

Birt departed in the 11th over, having contributed four runs to a partnership of 61 off 28 balls. Sehwag continued to ignore the procession at the other end, dispatching Mishra for three consecutive fours. The second of those boundaries slipped into the boundary from Ravi Teja's grasp, after he had managed to get both hands to the chance.

With 69 needed off 48, Sangakkara brought Dale Steyn back. Steyn dug one in short, Sehwag got on top of it, and flashed it past backward point. A desperate Sangakkara turned to Bharat Chipli's gentle medium pacers. Mistake. Sehwag brought up his hundred off the first ball, and then creamed the next two deliveries for sixes. Twenty-seven needed off 30. Game over. Though Steyn had him caught behind in the 17th over, the remaining batsmen managed to complete the heist.

Victory was looking far away for Delhi when they had allowed Deccan to get away to 175 on the bouncy pitch. Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan had chances grassed, and JP Duminy and Christian would have been dismissed within the space of three balls, had Yogesh Nagar not over-stepped twice in the 15th over.

Two of the four reprieved batsmen made Delhi pay dearly. Sangakkara doubled his score from 22 to 44, and Duminy went better, clattering four sixes on his way to converting 23 off 18 deliveries into 55 from 31. The no-balls meant what should have been 114 for 5 in the 15th over turned into 175 for 5 in 20 overs. Nagar's over disappeared for 20, after the only other over of spin conceded 12.

Sangakkara had joined Dhawan after Teja went early, but their partnership was a stop-start one, with punchy boundaries punctuated with swings-and-misses. There were also several inside and outside edges that went for boundaries behind the wicket. More luck was to come Deccan's way when Morkel dropped Sangakkara at short fine leg off Ajit Agarkar, and then failed to get near the ball when Dhawan top-edged a pull off the next delivery.

After Dhawan fell, Sangakkara's aggression allowed Duminy to play himself in before launching into an onslaught that took Deccan to what looked like a stiff total. Duminy, who had made 77 runs in five previous games, hardly looking like the batsman who had been struggling for runs. When in flow, Duminy is an extremely busy player, and while he got the big hits away, he also ran hard in typical fashion. Duminy added 71 in 33 deliveries with Christian, as Deccan made 108 in the last ten overs. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.