Pune vs Delhi Highlights: Comfortable win for Delhi DareDevils

An explosive innings of unbeaten 87 off 48 deliveries(10 fours, 3 sixes) guided Delhi to a comfortable chase against the Pune Warriors. Delhi also levelled scores with the Pune team who shocked them few days ago at their home ground. Chasing a modest total of 146 Delhi scored runs at a very good rate. Jayawardane and Sehwag opened the innings. Jayawardene was looking good until he got run out for 18. Kevin Peterson joined the part and made a breezy 27 before getting out when the score was 111. There were no major hiccups for the Delhi team later on. But the Delhi innings was totally Viru's show. His innings was studded with 3 sixes and 10 fours. It had been a long time since we witnessed the typical explosive innings of Virender Sehwag. Sehwag scored the winning runs with a boundary and a six. The bowling of Pune looked helpless in front of the onslaught of Delhi's skipper.

Earlier Pune Warriors won the toss and elected to bat. The team had a disastrous start losing Ryder and Ganguly very quickly. The score read 1 run for 2 wickets after 2 overs. But Manish Pandey and Uthappa re- constructed the innings and lasted till the 20 overs. It was a record partnership for the Pune team(145 runs). Manish Pandey opened the innings and made good use of the opportunity. He made an impressive knock of 80 in just 56 balls. Uthappa on the other hand scored 60 off 58 deliveries. The innings of him was very useful to lay the foundation. On hindsight the slow paced innings is deterrent to score big. Pune also had not utilized their trump card Steve Smith. Had Uthappa taken more risks after 15 overs the score would have been much more as they had plenty of wickets remaining. The scoring rate was also just under 6 for first 13 overs.

With this win Delhi Daredevils tops the points table with 10 points and looks more stronger team. Virender Sehwag received the Man of the Match award for his match winning performance. Pune will be disappointed with the result but the positive is Manish Pandey who had done a great job as an opener. Another concern must be the captain Ganguly's form himself who didn't score big in this tournament yet.

Turning point: 2 quick wickets in the first 2 overs of Pune innings made the difference. Pune concentrated on building the innings and had to compromise on the run rate.

Brief Scores:

Pune Warriors India: 146/2 in 20 overs(Pandey 80* Uthappa 60*)

Delhi Dare Devils : 148/2 in 16 overs(Sehwag 87*,Peterson 27)

Result: Delhi DareDevils won by 8 wickets with 4 overs to spare.

Man of the Match: Virender Sehwag.