SEHWAG LEADS FROM THE FRONT

Delhi Daredevils (DD) Skipper Virender Sehwag raised his team from the bottom to the seventh position in the points table of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a splendid fifty in Saturday’s 38-run triumph over the Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

Heading into today’s clash with just two wins, Delhi was under immense pressure after losing seven matches and were relying entirely on their skipper to pull them out of the lees.

Sehwag, accordingly delivered in excellent style, smashing eight boundaries and five sixes athwart his 80 runs off just 47 balls.

Inclined to stabilize the sinking ship of Daredevils in the stir of two early wickets by Shantha Sreesanth, getting rid of David Warner for three and Naman Ojha for a duck, respectively, Sehwag steadily kicked into his typically impatient approach in batting.

Yogesh Nagar and Travis Birt played a supportive role by making 22 and 20 runs, respectively. The swaggering right-handed weathered the initial hurricane and then punctually cashed in, receiving a special liking to the ineffective silage coughed up by the spinner.

While the opposition's pace spearhead, Sreesanth, located the superb line and length in tough conditions, Balachandra Akhil was ineffectively short and fellow slow bowler, Ramesh Powar, was trying too hard.Ravichandran Ashwin, agitated out four relatively impressive overs with a marginal left-arm turn.

For their Skipper endeavor Delhi recovered from four for two and then 35 for three to 157 for seven, which eventually demonstrated more than sufficient runs for a Nehru Stadium Pitch, annulled of much pace and bounce.

Conceited in Sreesanth's two wickets, only to be joggled by Sehwag's assault, Kochi's reply with the bat was completely worthless.

Kochi's tail-enders were never going to succeed in the face of spinner, Roelof van der Merwe's, delayed craftiness, the South African conscript shattering up three wickets in five deliveries to have Kochi all out for 119 in 18.5 overs.

While Delhis' anticipation of protecting a semi-final berth is back on its pathway, Mahela Jaywardene's Tuskers are left to intrigue the strategy to bounce up from second last position on the table.