A powerful, entertaining innings of 50 not out by South Africa's AB de Villiers took the Delhi Daredevils to a well-deserved, seven-wicket victory over the Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match at Buffalo Park on Friday.
De Villiers had some excellent support from Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan and the pair added 61 for the third wicket before Dilshan was caught behind by Pinal Shah off Lasith Malinga for 17.
The experienced Protea batsman faced only 38 balls in reaching his half-century, smashing a six and six fours in an innings which was watchful, at times, interspersed with attacking strokes.
Set 117 to win, at less than six runs an over, after the Mumbai Indians had collapsed for 116 all out in their 20 overs, the Daredevil openers, left- handers Gautam Gambhir and David Warner, built a fine foundation for the victory by batting sensibly for the first few overs and gauging the pace of the wicket. Warner, however, had time to bash Lasith Malinga over the fence for a huge six.
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But, the advent of the two off-spinners, Harbhajan Singh and JP Duminy, slowed the scoring to a crawl from the eighth over, and the two, bowling in tandem, restricted the Daredevils to only 36 runs in their combined eight overs, as well as capturing the wickets of both opening batsmen.
But when Sachin Tendulkar replaced Singh, De Villiers went on the attack and hit him for three boundaries and a huge six and 19 off the over to take the initiative away from the Mumbai Indians.
The game was action-packed from the first over, bowled by Victoria's Dirk Nannes, in which two wickets fell.
First to go was Luke Ronchi, the Australian. He tapped a ball into the covers, put his head down and just failed to beat a direct hit by his countryman, Warner. Then Duminy was caught behind off the last ball of the over.
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