The toss was strangely a non-affair, with Sangakarra looking to bat and Sehwag keen to continue their preference to chase down a total. With this, the Chargers kicked things off and their skipper fell early in the midst of a quiet start, to a misjudged pull from purple cap holder Morkel, that went up miles up in the air and settled safely in the hands of Nagar. this brought together the best partnership of the match, between Dhawan and Parthiv Patel, who rarely looked in any sort of trouble. Delhi probably bowled too short, Agarkar the main culprit, and Parthiv in particular capitalised and was smashing the ball to the boundary whenever he got the chance. It was great to watch a couple of elegant left handers playing attractive strokes, and at 81/1 after 9 overs they'd put their side into the perfect position for a late assault. Shahbaz, who has impressed so far, turned the game in Delhi's favour with his haul of 4-0-16-3 which gave away little to nothing. It was poor decision making from Dhawan (44 from 29), who'd done so well playing conventional shots, as he looked to reverse sweep Nadeem's first ball and was struck in front LBW to allow Delhi back into the game. Patel (45 from 27) was caught well on the long leg boundary by Jayawardene in Nadeem's next over and all of a sudden DD were on top with 2 new players at the crease. Nadeem, who later got Duminy, and Morkel were instrumental in preventing Deccan from getting away in the latter overs, the last 6 overs went for 43/5 as regular wickets halted the scoring. Morkel was near unplayable yet again, consistently hitting a good length and was able to find some life in a otherwise slow pitch, taking 4-0-23-3 and the purple cap in the process. Deccan will know that they could have posted a more challenging total and simply lost their way, Dhawan will regret that ill advised reverse sweep when he had looked so at ease. However, 157/8 looked around par on a slow pitch and had given their bowlers a chance.
Deccan made a fantastic start with the ball, making the necessary early in roads against a batting line-up like that of the DDs. Debutant Pratap Singh started well alongside the more experienced Steyn and Christian. Ojha fell in Singh's first over and Sehwag was the next to fall, guiding a rising delivery from Steyn into the hands of the lone slip. By the time Jayawardene had fallen to Christian, attempting to clear the off side the score was 23/3 in the fifth over with Deccan well on top. Pietersen had already been dropped by Chipli, a simple catch to short midwicket that was to prove crucial, and in partnership with Taylor set about rebuilding the innings. Whenever pressure was building KP was able to find the boundaries, one over from Mishra was treated brutally, with a remarkable six over cover on the back foot. Taylor was run out brilliantly by Dhawan in the pivotal middle overs and it looked as if KP would run out of partners, with Irfan Pathan the next man in and little else to come with 90 odd runs still needed at a stiff rate. He completely took charge in the middle to late overs, hitting a total of 9 sixes and some of them truly massive. Yogesh Nagar's late cameo (23* from 15) should not be overlooked, coming in at a crucial moment with 44 still need from 32 balls, but Pietersen (MoM) was undoubtedly the star of the show. He picked his bowlers, happy to play out the excellent Steyn (2-19) and picking on the spinners and Mishra and Duminy who were carted for 6 sixes in total. His 103* from 64 balls was his first 20/20 hundred and almost single handedly got his side over the line, hitting a six in the last over to win the game and bring up the milestone. That said, he should have been gone for 6, Deccan's fielding once again costing them the match and they'll be gutted to have once again missed out when in control, the 3rd time in succession.
Delhi go marching on and have all the momentum at the moment, very much the form side of this year's IPL. There are so many match winners in that batting line-up and you only need one of them to come off to get the victory, as today proved. Meanwhile, Deccan got themselves into position nicely, both with the bat and ball but continue to struggle with finishing the game, the sign of a team low on confidence. You can't afford to a player like KP a chance and he punished them today with a quite terrific effort.
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