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.

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ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE EDGE OUT DELHI DAREDEVILS IN A PULSATING ENCOUNTER

DD 160/6 20 overs RCB 161/7 19.3 overs

Bangalore edged out hosts Delhi in a pulsating finish to score an important win, which has improved their chances of finishing amongst the top four teams after the group stage of the cash rich league.

The hosts opted to bat first in the match played at Kotla in Delhi. The star of the show was James Hopes, who scored a breezy half century to help his team get a sizeable total.

The mainstays, Virender Sehwag, and his opening partner, David Warner, had an ordinary game, as both were dismissed cheaply in the game.

Hopes scored 54 runs off 43 balls, his innings was studded with 7 fours and was the cornerstone of the Delhieffort on what was set to be a good batting track, besides Hopes, the Daredevils were well served byVenugopal Rao, who scored 24 runs.

For the visitors Abhimanyu Mithun claimed 2 wickets conceding 37 runs in his allocation of 4 overs.

The Bangalore team lost Dilshan without score. However, the pair of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli brought them back in the hunt. The two took the total to 83, as Gayle took the back seat for a change to support the assault by Kohli.

Gayle was dismissed for 26 off 14 balls, while Kohli motored along to a score 56 off 38 balls, his innings was studded with 8 fours.

Kohli fell in the 10^th over of the innings, the score was 96 at this stage and the game was in the balance, as the Indian top order batsman was the 4^th one to fall.

The chase was carried forward by the late order batsmen. Daniel Vettori, the captain of the Challengers, came good with the bat after a long time. His crucial unbeaten knock of 18 runs took his team home. He was ably supported by Syed Mohammad, who scored an unbeaten 13 off 10 balls.

The Delhi attack that was taken apart by Kohli and Gayle early on came back strongly. However, they failed to run through the Challengers. Morne Morkel with 3 wickets was the pick of the bowlers.

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Kings X1 Punjab Vs. Delhi Daredevils

The confident Kings X1 Punjab (KXP) will take on the struggling Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the 26^th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL), at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, Delhi in India. The match will be played on Saturday, 23rd April, and the hosts will look to turn around their fortunes in the tournament.
Things haven’t been good for Delhi at home though, as they were defeated by Mumbai Indians (MI) and Deccan Chargers (DC) at the Feroz Shah Kotla, earlier in the tournament. They are currently at the bottom of the IPL table with just one victory in four games.
The home team is led by flamboyant Indian batsman Virender Sehwag, who has been unable to fire until now in the cash rich event. The explosive right-handed opener has been suffering from a shoulder problem, which may have affected his performance in the tournament. His performance holds the key for the hosts, as it will give them a huge confidence boost.
Sehwag is partnered by Australian David Warner at the top of the order and both batsmen can be deadly for the opposition once they get going. They were deemed to be one of the best opening pairs in the tournament, but have been unable to live up to those expectations until now.
There are also some other very talented batsmen in the DD side, but they too have struggled to be consistent. Aaron Finch, Venugopal Rao, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha have looked good in patches, but will be required to come up with a special effort to overcome the opposition.
On the other hand, former Australian wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist will lead the KXP side. He was a part of the DC team in the previous three editions of the IPL and led the franchise to a title victory in the second season, played in South Africa. One common thing between both captains in this match is their aggressive nature. However, the Australian has been able to use his abilities to full affect, winning three matches out of the four played until now in the tournament.
The main force behind the visitors impressive start has been their opener, Paul Valthaty, who is the leading run scorer in the tournament so far. He has been able to attack the opposition with effortless ease and also scored a brilliant century in a match against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who are led by Indian captain MS Dhoni.
Shaun Marsh has also been a consistent performer for his team and has managed some useful runs at the top of the order. He was a relative unknown when he first appeared in the inaugural IPL in 2008, but stunned one and all with his brilliant batting. The stylish left-hander ended-up being the top scorer in that tournament and has been a valuable player since then.
David Hussey, Ryan McLaren, Ryan Harris and Dinesh Karthik are the other players who add to the strength of the KXP squad. They will look to continue doing well for their team and win against any opposition they face.
Both teams look strong on paper, but the momentum is definitely with the visitors at the moment. They will look to gain full advantage of that and exert maximum pressure on the home team.

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KINGS X1 PUNJAB VS. DELHI DAREDEVILS

The confident Kings X1 Punjab (KXP) will take on the struggling Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the 26^th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL), at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, Delhi in India. The match will be played on Saturday, 23rd April, and the hosts will look to turn around their fortunes in the tournament.

Things haven’t been good for Delhi at home though, as they were defeated by Mumbai Indians (MI) and Deccan Chargers (DC) at the Feroz Shah Kotla, earlier in the tournament. They are currently at the bottom of the IPL table with just one victory in four games.

The home team is led by flamboyant Indian batsman Virender Sehwag, who has been unable to fire until now in the cash rich event. The explosive right-handed opener has been suffering from a shoulder problem, which may have affected his performance in the tournament. His performance holds the key for the hosts, as it will give them a huge confidence boost.

Sehwag is partnered by Australian David Warner at the top of the order and both batsmen can be deadly for the opposition once they get going. They were deemed to be one of the best opening pairs in the tournament, but have been unable to live up to those expectations until now.

There are also some other very talented batsmen in the DD side, but they too have struggled to be consistent.Aaron Finch, Venugopal Rao, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Irfan Pathan and Naman Ojha have looked good in patches, but will be required to come up with a special effort to overcome the opposition.

On the other hand, former Australian wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist will lead the KXP side. He was a part of the DC team in the previous three editions of the IPL and led the franchise to a title victory in the second season, played in South Africa. One common thing between both captains in this match is their aggressive nature. However, the Australian has been able to use his abilities to full affect, winning three matches out of the four played until now in the tournament.

The main force behind the visitors impressive start has been their opener, Paul Valthaty, who is the leading run scorer in the tournament so far. He has been able to attack the opposition with effortless ease and also scored a brilliant century in a match against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who are led by Indian captain MS Dhoni.

Shaun Marsh has also been a consistent performer for his team and has managed some useful runs at the top of the order. He was a relative unknown when he first appeared in the inaugural IPL in 2008, but stunned one and all with his brilliant batting. The stylish left-hander ended-up being the top scorer in that tournament and has been a valuable player since then.

David Hussey, Ryan McLaren, Ryan Harris and Dinesh Karthik are the other players who add to the strength of the KXP squad. They will look to continue doing well for their team and win against any opposition they face.

Both teams look strong on paper, but the momentum is definitely with the visitors at the moment. They will look to gain full advantage of that and exert maximum pressure on the home team.

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DELHI DAREDEVILS SKIPPER SEHWAG CONCERNED ABOUT BATTING

Delhi Daredevils’ skipper Virender Sehwag is extremely disappointed by the performance of his batsmen in their second Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Rajasthan Royals.

The aggressive Indian opening batsman has voiced severe concerns over his team’s batting, which eventually resulted in Delhi’s second consecutive defeat in the competition.

Delhi’s team was thrashed by Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals, and the Daredevils could only produce a couple of individual batting performances.

David Warner scored a fine half-century at the top-order, and Venugopal Rao chipped in with an excellent 60 runs.

However, none of the other batsmen could show their magic in the game. The captain, who claimed to keep a lot of experience of facing international bowlers, also lost his wicket to Australian pacer Shaun Tait after adding just four runs in the total.

With only three batsmen crossing double figures, the whole team managed to pile up a total of 151, which eventually proved to be a small score on a pure batting track and the Rajasthani batsmen overwhelmed the target with 9 balls remaining.

It must be noted that Delhi’s side got all out on a total of 95 in their previous game against Mumbai Indians. The stunning Sri Lankan pacer, Lasith Malinga, picked up five wickets and eight Delhi batsmen failed to reach double figures.

Two consecutive batting collapses have troubled Sehwag a great deal, and the skipper could not hide his disappointment.

"To win matches, we need to bat well and put up a challenging score. I am really concerned about our team`s batting. Although Venugopal Rao and David Warner played well and Irfan hit a couple of boundaries in the end, we should have scored around 165-170 in order to win the match", Sehwag said.

With an inexperienced batting line-up, Sehwag knows that his own form is crucial for Delhi Daredevils if the team is to have any chance of stepping up in the league rankings.

"I have to score runs in the coming games. May be, if I start scoring runs, we can reach 160-170 consistently", the Nawab of Najafgarh added.

Meanwhile, the captain praised South African seamer, Morne Morkel, who returned with outstanding figures, conceding only 11 runs in his four overs.

The Delhi side is scheduled to face Yuvraj’s Pune Warriors in their next IPL 4 game at Patil Sports Academy ground, Mumbai.

The two successive defeats has put Delhi’s outfit into a ‘do or die’ situation, as they have to win their upcoming game, otherwise their chances in the Twenty20 league will begin to fade.

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