Chennai Super Kings

IPL: Delhi Dare Devils beat Chennai Super Kings

Delhi Dare Devils beat Chennai Super Kings in a tight game at Durban by nine runs.

Delhi won the toss and elected to bat on a placid pitch. The opening duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were removed early and the Chennai team was in a good position. But AB De Villiers (105 off 54 balls) scored the first ton of this year’s edition of IPL and his partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan (50) and Manoj Tiwary, helped Delhi put up the highest total of the tournament so far. The destructive AB was brilliant both off the front and backfoot and the Chennai bowlers just didn’t know where to bowl to him. The the man to suffer most was Chennai’s star all-rounder Flintoff, who was plundered for 20 off the penultimate over by AB. The 6-4-4-6 combo pushed the total to 189.

Chennai kept losing wickets at regular intervals to go down by nine runs. The game could have gone much tighter had Hayden (57 off 27 balls) hung on for a little longer. When Hayden got out, Chennai needed 100 off 72 balls, but Daniel Vettori had his full quota of four overs up his sleeve as the crafty Kiwi again made the difference. While Dhoni fell to Vettori, Flintoff was dislodged by Ashish Nehra, and the pressure was right on Chennai. But they kept themselves in the game till the 19th over, but Vettori again bowled a brilliant over, dismissing Badrinath, which sealed the game for Delhi.

Delhi now have four points from two matches while Chennai have two points from three matches.

Tags: Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Dare Devils, IPL