New Dehli – Kevin Pietersen blasted 103 not out to guide Delhi Daredevils to a five-wicket win over Deccan Chargers while half-centuries from Faf du Plessis and Subramaniam Badinath helped Chennai Super Kings beat Pune Warriors by 13 runs in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
England batsman Pietersen smashed nine sixes and six fours off 64 balls in his maiden Twenty20 century as Delhi scored 162-5 in 19.1 overs after restricting Deccan to 157-8 at Ferozeshah Kotla Ground.
Deccan earlier looked set for a huge total before Shahbaz Nadeem (3-16) and Morne Morkel (3-23) pegged them back with timely strikes.
Parthiv Patel (45) and Shikhar Dhawan (44) were the main scorers for Deccan.
Pietersen struck three consecutive sixes off allrounder JP Duminy in the 13th over of the innings to wrest command for his team, which leads the points table.
Delhi was struggling at 23-3 at one stage with captain Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene back in the pavilion, but Pietersen batted himself in before unleashing the barrage of strokes. He smashed the winning shot, a six off Ankit Sharma, to get to his century.
“This is absolutely amazing, the crowds cheering for the teams here,” Pietersen said. “I would love to have more English cricketers playing here, but I am enjoying playing in India.”
Earlier, left-arm spinner Nadeem, who plays for the eastern state of Jharkhand in Indian domestic tournaments, had a first-ball lbw dismissal of opener Dhawan as the batsman went for a reverse-sweep.
Nadeem also took the key wickets of Patel and Duminy to finish with 3-16, changing the course of the innings after Deccan was cruising along at 81-1 in nine overs.
Patel and Dhawan got runs, but the following batsmen succumbed cheaply as Morkel, who dismissed captain Kumar Sangakkara early in the innings, finished with a haul of 3-23.
Delhi has four wins from five games while Deccan has lost all of its four.
At Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, openers Faf du Plessis (58) and Badrinath (57) figured in a 116-run stand that helped defending champion Chennai post a challenging total of 164-5.
The Pune batsmen failed to capitalize on good starts and could manage only 151-7 in reply. Sri Lanka allrounder Angelo Mathews topscored with 27.
Sourav Ganguly-led Pune won its earlier encounter against Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai.
Both teams have three wins and three losses from six games.
Scores:
Delhi Daredevils 162-5 (Kevin Pietersen 103 not out; Dale Steyn 2-19) def. Deccan Chargers 157-8 (Parthiv Patel 45, Shikhar Dhawan 44; Shahbaz Nadeem 3-19, Morne Morkel 3-23).
Chennai Super Kings 164-5 (Faf du Plessis 58, Subramaniam Badrinath 57, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 28 not out; Marlon Samuels 3-39, Ashish Nehra 2-23) def. Pune Warriors 151-7 (Angelo Mathews 27, Marlon Samuels 26; Nuwan Kulasekara 2-10, Dwayne Bravo 2-28). – Sapa-AP