Delhi Daredevils Paid the
penalty for dropping Mahela and picking just hitters CLPT20News
DD Optional Skipper Mahela Jayawardene |
Regular captain Mahela Jayawardene dropped out to allow David
Warner to open the account. Kevin
Pietersen waged a lone battle but Delhi Daredevils simply lacked the firepower
as they lost to Highveld Lions by 22 runs in the first semi-final of the
Champions League Twenty20 here on Thursday. Regular captain Mahela Jayawardene left
himself out to allow David Warner to Open the account.
On
a bouncy Kingsmead pitch, Highveld Lions got a decent 139 for five which was
par for the course and then restricted Daredevils to only 117 for nine. With
Daredevils' defeat, the challenge of IPL teams in this edition ended on a
disappointing note.
The
Daredevils batsmen save Pietersen who scored 50 off 44 balls, looked in utter
discomfort against Lions attack especially pacer Chris Morris. Morris bowled
fast and straight as he gave away only seven runs in four overs taking prize
wickets of David Warner and Pietersen.
Morris
and find of the tournament left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso (2/17) gave away
only 25 runs in the eight overs between them getting four wickets in the
process. That was decisive although Daredevils never looked like being in the
match once they started batting.
Virender
Sehwag lasted only one delivery as he decided to loft the Sohail Tanveer
straightaway but only managed to offer rival skipper Alviro Peterson an easy
catch. Warner, playing his first match of the tournament started with couple of
boundaries off Dirk Nannes -- a flick and then a pull in-front of square. Pietersen
then got his first boundary off Tanveer with another pull-shot.
The
fifth over turned out to be a productive one for Daredevils as Pietersen and
Warner got three boundaries off Nannes. While KP smacked one past Warner, the
Aussie opener hit couple of boundaries through off-side cordon.
Just
when it looked like Mahela Jayawardene's decision to include Warner at his own
expense was a masterstroke, the Aussie failed execute a short-arm pull off
Morris as the bowler safely pouched onto the skier. Warner made 21 off 18 balls
with four boundaries.
Unmukt
Chand wasted precious deliveries before he was holed out in the deep after
scoring only 9 off 20 balls. The 12th over fetched 10 runs mainly due to a huge
six by Pietersen but Phangiso dismissed Irfan Pathan for one to reduce Delhi to 72 for four. Stand-in skipper Ross Taylor was
gone due to sharp return catch taken by Nannes and there was no way Daredevils
could have come back in the match.
Lions
139 for 5 (Bodi 50, McKenzie 46*, Yadav 2-20) beat Delhi Daredevils 117 for 9 (Pietersen 50, Morris 2-7,
Phangiso 2-18) by 22 runs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment