The Delhi Daredevils skipper, Virender Sehwag said on Saturday that he had gone in to the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala with an intention to lead from the front by batting throughout their innings.
"Absolutely happy. The wicket was not easy, I took the responsibility and once we crossed 120, I thought we had got par. We were very happy we got 158," said Sehwag after the match.
"I was hitting the ball nicely, it was obvious I had to bat longer. I told myself if I just stayed longer we could get 130, a good total on this wicket. And then just told my bowlers to bowl straight, and the wicket would do the rest," the visiting skipper added further.
The swashbuckling Indian opener led the Daredevils from the front with a whirlwind 80-run knock which came of just 47 balls. His knock steered the hosts to a daunting total of 157 for 7 before the Morne Morkel-led bowling attack rolled over Kochi for just 119 runs, to register a 38-run victory at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi.
Morne Morkel and Roelof van der Merwe shared three wickets each, conceding 18 and 20 runs respectively, while Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar returned with two wickets apiece.
The Kochi captain, Mahela Jayawardene, lauded his counterpart for the belligerent knock and said that that Sehwag's heroics at the top of the order took the game away from the home side. He said that 130 to 140 runs would have been a competitive total, but chasing 160 was quite tough.
Jayawardene wished they had removed Viru early. He also said that after getting on to a relatively good start, the bowlers failed to keep hold in the second half of Daredevils’ innings.
"The way we bowled in the last 10, we didn't have any control over things. We didn't bowl good areas. The first 10 we were good," said Jayawardene.
The Delhi Daredevils were earlier at the bottom of the tournament points table, but the victory against Kochi Tuskers Kerala has moved the side up to number seven.
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