The Delhi Daredevils captain, Virender Sehwag has said that he never felt the 176-run target set by the Deccan Chargers would be difficult to achieve despite losing his top three batsmen inside the first six overs of their chase.
"I was always telling my boys that if a set batsman can bat for 15-16 overs, any target is achievable for players like myself, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist," said Sehwag at the presentation ceremony.
While chasing a daunting 176-run target to win, the swashbuckling Sehwag struck a whirlwind maiden hundred of his T20 career to take his side home on the last ball of the penultimate over with four wickets in hands.
The hard-hitting India opener hailed the new-ball pair of Deccan, featuring Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma, for their outstanding performances in the tournament. He said that both are world class bowlers but the weak point of the hosts was that they did not have a fifth specialist bowler.
He further added that he just tried to manage the first spell of the new-ball pacers as he was sure if he could manage the opening spell of the duo, he would be in a position to attack Amit Mishra, the part-time leg-spinner. And the experienced India opener executed his plans well to play a herculean knock of 119 runs off just 56 deliveries, laced with 13 muscular boundaries and six lofty sixes.
This was Sehwag’s first ever hundred in the shortest format of the game, both domestic and international, and he said that he did not want to miss out on a century this time around.
The match-winning knock against Deccan not only earned him the Man of the Match award, but also the Orange Cap as he is now leading the runs chart of the tournament with a tally of 422 runs from 10 games at an average of 42.20.
The visiting captain also praised the Hyderabad wicket and termed it as a good sporting track that has something to offer to both the bowlers and the batsmen.
With four wins in 10 games, the Daredevils currently stand at number seven on the tournament points table and in order to confirm a berth in the final four, they would have to win all of their remaining five games. Even a single defeat from here on will mean a league stage oust for Delhi and this makes Sehwag fearless as they have nothing to lose.
Sehwag’s Deccan counterpart, Kumar Sangakkara rued the dropped catches of Sehwag which cost them the game in the end. He said that their fielding was not up to the mark and they suffered just because of that.
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