Amit Mishra spins Delhi to victory by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Delhi Daredevils v Deccan Chargers
Player:	AC Gilchrist, RG Sharma, A Mishra, G Gambhir, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Asif, KD Karthik, R Bhatia
Event:	Indian Premier League 2007/08

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DateLine: 16th May 2008

 

Delhi DareDevils were coming into today’s match with four successive losses and that would have played heavily in the team’s decision making, as they brought in three players for today’s match, Rajat Bhatia, Dinesh Karthik and Mohammad Asif, where as the bottom placed Deccan Chargers had no option but to get Shahid Afridi back and make room for a debutant, Sarvesh Kumar.

 

Adam Gilchrist won the toss, and as has been a pattern with most captains in this first season of the Indian Premier League, elected to field first. Virender Sehwag scored his consecutive duck of the tournament, but that only set the stage for the two left handed cricketers from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan to showcase their talent. Both took their time to get going, but once they did that, there was no looking back. R.P. Singh went for 20 in one of his overs – his final analysis read an unenviable 0/50 off his four – as the pair stepped up the ante.

 

Gambhir reached his fifth half century of the tournament – the only one to do so – and was soon followed by Dhawan, who notched up his fourth. Gambhir fell after scoring 79, but that only brought, first Farveez Maharoof and then Tilakratne Dilshan to the crease who managed to smash the ball around to propel Delhi’s total to 194/4 in the 20 overs, Dhawan ending with an unbeaten 68.

 

The target was an imposing one, and so opening with Adam Gilchrist and Shahid Afridi was always on cards for the Chargers, which they did. Gilchrist perished early, caught superbly by Dilshan off the old warhorse, Glen McGrath, but Afridi finally looked like he had found some touch. As soon as the field restrictions were up, Sehwag did not hesitate in bringing in the leg-spinner, Amit Mishra, who immediately got Afridi to mishit one straight up to the substitute, A.B.deVilliers, a short delivery that should have probably been sent to Mishra’s hometown in Haryana.

 

Gibbs was fooled by a Mishra googly, and although Rohit Sharma tried their best, none could really convert their starts into something substantial. In the end, the Chargers needed 43 off the last three overs, when Venugopal Rao hit an 18 off the Maharoof over, bringing the tally down to 25 off 2, and then 15 off the last over. Delhi DareDevils had once conceded that much in the tournament before against the Chennai Super Kings, but this time, Amit Mishra was entrusted this responsibility.

 

Mishra kept it simple, and ended up taking a hat-trick – second one to do so after L. Balaji, as the Delhi team ran victors by 12 runs. Mishra won the Man-of-the-Match award for his 5/17 in the four overs. Delhi now have ten points from 9 matches, where as the Chargers are stuck at four.