Sewag's Hurricane made Delhi to win

After watching his bowlers who take wickets in no-balls and his fielders who drop sitters, the captain of Delhi Daredevils took his frustration over Deccan Chargers. He made a blistering century, also his first in Twenty20s. Complete lack of support from his team-mates, Sehwag made a flood of boundaries that help them to make a challenging total. The next highest score was James Hopes' 17.
 

Sehwag has made a career out of sticking in this match. Sehwag shuffled across and glanced a boundary from the middle-stump line to fine leg. The asking-rate crossed eleven at by the end of seven overs. Sehwag broke free in the next over, bowled by IPL debutant Ishan Malhotra. In the first ball of this over he played in deep square leg, in the next ball deep midwicket. Two more boundaries followed, as Sehwag looted 23 off the over. Sehwag plundered 13 off the next over, from Christian.

Sangakkara brought on spin, so often Sehwag's strength as well as weakness. Sehwag displayed his strength first ball, dancing down and launching Amit Mishra over the straight boundary. The weakness was on display next ball, as he rushed out again but ended up slicing to sweeper cover. That is when Deccan decided to return the earlier favours, substitute Ankit Sharma clanging a simple chance. Sehwag gladly guided the third ball through third man for four.
 

Birt departed in the 11th over, having contributed 4 runs to a partnership of 61 off 28 balls. Sehwag ignored the contribution at the other end, dispatching Mishra for three consecutive fours. The second of those boundaries slipped into the boundary from Ravi Teja's grasp, after he had managed to get both hands to the chance.
 

When 69 needed off 48, Sangakkara brought Dale Steyn back. Steyn dug one in short; Sehwag got on top of it, and flashed it past backward point. A desperate Sangakkara turned to Bharat Chipli's gentle medium pacers. Sehwag brought up his hundred off the first ball, and then creamed the next two for sixes. Twenty-seven needed off 30.
 

Victory was looking far away for Delhi when they had permitted Deccan to run on a bouncy pitch. Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan had chances grassed, and JP Duminy and Christian would have been dismissed within the space of three balls in the 15th over. Sangakkara's partnership with Duminy was a good affair, with punchy and edged boundaries alternating with swings-and-misses. More luck was to come Deccan's way when Morkel dropped Sangakkara at short fine leg off Ajit Agarkar, and then failed to get near the ball when Dhawan top-edged a pull off the next delivery. Duminy, who had made 77 runs in five previous games, hardly looking like the batsman who had been struggling for runs. He added 71 in 33 deliveries with Christian, as Deccan made 108 in the last ten overs. It counted for little in the end.

KKR turned to top

By winning this match, Kolkata Knight Riders move to top on the points table, although there is another team, Mumbai Indians, and they have a game in hand. Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf took three big wickets - Adam Gilchrist, Paul Valthaty and David Hussey - for 43 runs in eight overs. Eoin Morgan and Gautam Gambhir, two of the best players of KKR, made sure that the chase was smooth.

After the dismissal of Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh and Abhishek Nayar were run out: Marsh caught and Nayar when trying to take a tight single. At 53 for 4 in the 10th over, Gambhir's captaincy shone through. He was not content with the early wickets. Almost every new batsman walked out to a slip and a silly point. Gambhir himself fielded under the helmet.
 

A 33-run stabilizing stand between Dinesh Karthik and David Hussey threatened much, but in the 15th over Abdulla came back to end. Three overs after he had survived a shout for a lbw, Hussey was given out to a delivery that could have perhaps slid down the leg side. Karthik nudged and swept his means to 42 off 42, but couldn't afford that final kick. Only 33 came off the last five overs, which intended that the run-rate never crossed six an over after it slipped under the smudge in the seventh over.
 

It was a chase that could have simply gone wrong on a difficult track. At least it defenseless to when Jacques Kallis got out to the first ball of left-arm spin of Bhargav Bhatt, who begins the bowling. Morgan, however, took out anything keenness the Punjab side might have had. He judged lengths of the ball early, moved feet decisively, and his 15-ball 28 made sure there was no run-rate pressure on the rest.
 

Gambhir annulled the spinners expertly, viewing his version of quick footwork. Maybe because he is the captain, he was less gaudy than Morgan. He relied on imperative forward, then waiting for the bowler to bowl short for a push into the leg side. If the bowler didn't pitch short, like Piyush Chawla tried, he punished him well over the infield. With support approaching from Manoj Tiwary, the rest was a twilight walk at Eden Gardens.