De Villiers propels Daredevils to thrilling nine-run win over Chennai Super Kings

DURBAN: A brlliant team effort, spearhead by Man of the Match, Abraham De Villiers, saw Delhi Daredevils pull off a thrilling nine-run win over Chennai Super Kings  at Kingsmead, Durban here on Thursday.
 
Delhi, down to two for eight, were aided by a brilliant hundred by De Villiers which took them to an imposing total of 189 for five in their stipulated 20 overs. 

Later Daniel Vettori, Pradeep Sanghwan and Aashish Nehra with the ball and David Warner with his stupendous fielding ensured a win for Delhi Daredevils.
 
Earlier, after Delhi won the toss and decided to bat first, they had the worst possible start with Gautam Gambhir falling to Balaji on the very first ball of the day.  Things got worse when Manpreet Gony snared Virender Sehwag with the total on a partly eight.  The duo of deVilliers and Dilshan Tilakaratne then came together and played some scintillating shots to take the score to 76 when Tilakaratne fell for a well made 50 of only 27 balls.
 
De Villiers then put a foot on the pedal and took the score to 114 in the company of Dinesh Kartik before the latter’s dismissal.  The fact that Karthik scored only 14 runs reveals the level of dominance De Villiers exerted on the hapless Chennai attack. Thereafter De Villiers in the company of Manoj Tiwary took the score to 188, during which partnership, he carted the experienced and dangerous Andrew Flintoff all over the park.  Flintoff conceded 50 runs in his stipulated four overs. 

The best of the Chennai bowlers proved to be Lakshmipathy Balaji who took three for just 19 in his four overs.  Balaji mixed his slower delivery well with his stock one to put a leash on the Delhi batsmen.

The Chennai innings took off reasonably well with the duo of Mathew Hayden and Parthiv Patel adding 57 runs before Patel became Sangwan’s first victim.  Suresh Raina joined Hayden and the duo took the score to 90 before Sangwan struck again sending the burly Australian back, caught by Dirk Nannes for 57 well made runs of just 37 deliveries. 

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni couldn’t make much of an impact, ending up giving wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik a catch off the bowling of Vettori for a mere five runs. 
 
Suresh Raina became Sangwan’s third victim after making 41 of 27.  Andrew Flintoff and Albie Morkel played some lusty shots to keep Chennai in the race till Flintoff fell caught by Warner off Nehra after exactly 16 overs.  The last four overs were a comedy of errors with Badrinath caught brilliantly by Warner of Vettori and the trio of Gony, Joginder Sharma and L Balaji all getting run out. 

Gony created a stir hitting a six of Vettori and taking the equation of 15 off seven.  He was however run-out the very next delivery and at the end, Chennai was faced with an impossible task of scoring 11 of the last delivery. And Delhi ended victors by nine runs.