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A clinical Delhi Daredevils bumped Chennai Super Kings off the No. 1 spot and ended Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 100% win record at the IPL with an eight-wicket win in Chennai. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir’s century partnership took the game away from Chennai in the first 12 overs.

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Chennai Super Kings couldn’t build on the blistering start they got from debutant S Vidyut’s fifty and allowed Delhi Daredevils to wrest the initiative in the later half of the innings, ending at an anti-climatic 169. If Delhi win, the table leader will be decided on net run-rate and Chennai will be disappointed they didn’t cross 200.

With their No. 1 spot and 100% IPL win record at stake, Chennai came out guns blazing. Though they didn’t always aim right, Vidyut and Parthiv Patel added 42 at more than eight an over. Vidyut added another 57 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni but they were restricted to a run-rate of eight and a half an over when it should have been more than ten.

Delhi’s pace attack wasn’t wayward, though they bowled the odd short and wide delivery, but they couldn’t contain the run-scoring as the Chennai batsmen were prepared to take risks. There was an element of luck as several mis-hits and top-edges found their way to the boundary. Vidyut’s innings was full of such unintentional shots – one shot, in the 10th over, was a pull edged off Asif that sailed over the keeper for four. But those shots deserted Chennai when they needed them as the Delhi’s bowlers bounced back.

Between overs 12 and 16, Delhi conceded only 31 runs as Mohammad Asif, Glenn McGrath and Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh bowled fuller and cut out Dhoni’s attempts to step out of the crease and attack. Yo Mahesh, who had conceded two free-hits before bowling Stephen Fleming in his first over, conceded only one run in his final over. Virender Sehwag shuffled his bowlers about – giving Asif only one over in his opening spell – and with all his fast bowlers having finished their quotas, he tossed the ball to Rajat Bhatia for the final over. Bhatia, who hadn’t bowled in the innings so far, impressed as he conceded only 11.

Albie Morkel’s late charge took Chennai past 150; he hit Pradeep Sangwan for consecutive sixes and was the one batsman who mostly hit through the line. But Delhi have Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who score in a Mad-Max style that could take the game away early on from Chennai.

Chennai: 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 5 S Badrinath, 6 Albie Morkel, 7, S Vidyut, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

Delhi: 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 AB de Villiers, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Pradeep Sangwan, 9 Mohammad Asif, 10 Yo Mahesh, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Source:Cricket News

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