Delhi Daredevils captain Mahela Jayawardene played a silky innings, but was completely overshadowed by a vintage Virender Sehwag effort as the Daredevils won their first match of IPL 2013 against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday by a massive margin of nine wickets with a full three overs to spare.
The win was as comprehensive as they come. Jayawardene and Sehwag took their team to the brink of victory with an opening stand of 151 chasing a challenging target of 162.
Man-of-the-match Sehwag fully deserved a century before running out of runs, being stranded on an unbeaten 95 off 57 balls, an innings studded by two sixes and 13 fours.
Jayawardene’s 59 came off 43 deliveries. Team advisor Sir Viv Richards must have looked on very proudly.
Mumbai would have expected their 161-4 to have been more competitive, but will rue the dropped chance offered by Sehwag when he had just two to his name. Jasprit Bumrah was the culprit at short fine leg.
After that, Sehwag, whose future in the game has been questioned after a poor run at the highest level, never looked back. He claimed the record for the most boundaries scored in IPL history as Delhi rattled up 60 without loss in the PowerPlay.
The runs continued to flow as Sehwag went to his 50 off 31 balls. Jayawardene was happy to play second fiddle, although his fifty was hardly slower, coming off 34 balls.
His only six was a super shot, ironically sailing over the Mumbai dug-out.
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Lasith Malinga eventually found some reward, firing in a superb yorker to trap Jayawardene so palpably in front that the skipper almost walked.
The Sri Lanka speedster had found the edge of Sehwag’s bat with another yorker earlier in the over.
Earlier Mumbai won the toss and batted first.
An early strike by Roelof van der Merwe and an unfortunate run-out saw them wobbling at 22-2 before Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma restored their fortunes with a partnership of 96 off 67 balls.
Sharma was in scintillating form, going on to score 73 off 43 balls, with five sixes and as many fours, before being taken on the boundary.
Tendulkar was more sedate, finishing on 54 off 47 balls.
Umesh Yadav had a good day, taking 2-31. His catch of Dwayne Smith and finger-tips to a straight drive from Tendulkar to see Dinesh Karthik run out saw the visitors in early trouble. He came back later to dismiss both the half-centurions.
After six straight defeats, Delhi have at last got some points on the table although they are still languishing in last place while Mumbai remain in fifth spot, missing out on a chance to move into the play-off positions.
DELHI DAREDEVILS: DA Warner, V Sehwag, DPMD Jayawardene (capt), Y Venugopal Rao, KM Jadhav (wk), RE van der Merwe, IK Pathan, AD Russell, AB Agarkar, S Nadeem, UT Yadav
MUMBAI INDIANS: RT Ponting (capt), SR Tendulkar, RG Sharma, KD Karthik (wk), AT Rayudu, KA Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, DR Smith, JJ Bumrah, MM Patel, SL Malinga
