Bhatia steals it for Delhi

BHATIA BOWLS ‘EM OVER

Twenty-five runs needed off 18 deliveries,with seven wickets in hand and Andrew Symonds and Dwayne Smith at the crease — pretty much a cakewalk by Twenty20 standards. That’s when Rajat Bhatia came back into the attack,after having gone for 11 in his first over,and turned things on its head. The 29-year-old cleaned up both Symonds and Smith in the same over,sparking a dramatic turn of events as the Deccan Chargers lost their last seven wickets for just 12 runs. Bhatia took two more wickets in the final over to finish with 4-15. Delhi are now near-certainties to enter the semi-finals of the Indian Premier League’s second season.

drop zone

The evening started with Delhi being put in to bat by the Chargers,who hardly gave a good account of themselves in the field. After David Warner fell early,Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter off Tillakaratne Dilshan’s bat at gully. Dilshan went on to score a 18-ball 37,providing the early impetus.

AB de Villiers,who was dropped by Ravi Teja while on seven,continued his impressive run,scoring a 36-ball 44 and holding the Delhi innings together.

Symonds then put down a skier off Virender Sehwag’s bat,but it was Dinesh Karthik’s blitz that propelled Delhi past the 170-run mark. The wicket-keeper,who remained unbeaten on a 23-ball 44,smashed the experienced Chaminda Vaas for 23 runs in the final over of the innings,including two sixes.

AUSSIE DUET

Chasing 174,Gilchrist got his team off to an absolute flier,taking Ashish Nehra for 18 runs in the first over of their innings. The Deccan captain continued his assault on the Delhi bowlers single-handedly,sharing partnerships of 33 and 46 with T Suman and Ravi Teja,who contributed three and eight respectively. When Gilchrist was dismissed,cleaned up by Pradeep Sangwan for a 33-ball 64,Symonds took over from his fellow Australain had left off with a 22-ball 41. As things turned out,Bhatia came back to make sure Delhi got an unlikely victory.