Delhi up and running

He had blasted an unbeaten 66, bowled three overs for just 16, and come within centimetres of bagging his third IPL hat-trick. Anyone would have thrown Yuvraj Singh the ball when the Delhi Daredevils needed 21 from the last 12 balls. The Pune Warriors skipper himself, however, hesitated a moment, pondering whether to let Wayne Parnell bowl the penultimate over. In the end, after conferring with Robin Uthappa and Jesse Ryder, Yuvraj ambled towards the top of his mark, ball in hand. 

The start of the over seemed to suggest that nothing could go wrong for him on this humid Sunday evening at the DY Patil stadium. Aaron Finch tried to pummel a typically slow and innocuous delivery from the left-arm spinner into outer space. The ball instead looped off his top edge and fell into the bowler’s cupped hands. 

Two balls later, Venugopal Rao took strike. It was he who had escaped being the hat-trick victim, not picking the arm ball and getting an inside-edge on to his pads. Since then, he had struck two meaty sixes and added 21 to Delhi’s total. Rao now proceeded to spank the ball into the stands for the third time, stepping out, stepping away and clattering it over long on. 

A pulled four off the next ball reduced the equation to eight from seven. The next ball saw him become Yuvraj’s fourth victim, but the damage had been done. James Hopes powered Jesse Ryder into the sight-screen at the pavilion end at the start of the final over, and Delhi, with only two to get from five, had wrapped up their first win of the tournament and handed Pune their first defeat. 

Ryder fireworks

 

It had all started very differently for the home side and for Ryder. Having won the toss and opted to field, Delhi skipper Virender Sehwag handed Venugopal Rao the new ball. Ryder flicked the fourth of his occasional off breaks beyond the long on ropes, and slog-swept the fifth for another six. 

Standing perfectly still at the crease and moving his feet only when strictly necessary, the rotund left-handed opener carved Delhi’s bowlers all over the place. He greeted Irfan Pathan with a flat-batted biff between the bowler and mid off, and pulled his next ball for six. 

Umesh Yadav sent down three short balls in succession, and derived none of the spiteful lift he may have expected. Ryder opened his face to send the first one screaming past third man, opened his shoulders to bash the next one in front of midwicket, and crashed the third one over point, going from 25 to 37 in the process. 

As the match wore on, left-handers continued to prosper. Yuvraj Singh posted his biggest IPL score yet, and ended the Pune innings with three sixes off Ashok Dinda, three balls of different lengths launched into the same stand to the left of the press box. 

Needing 188 to win, Delhi needed one or both of their openers to fire. Virender Sehwag punished Shrikant Wagh whenever the left-armer gave him width, but David Warner performed the rare feat of upstaging the Delhi skipper. 

The fall of the openers precipitated a bit of a collapse, with Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha and Matthew Wade following them back in quick succession as Ryder, Yuvraj and leg spinner Rahul Sharma took the pace off the ball. But the depth of Delhi’s batting saw them through.