Centuries in T20 cricket do not come as good. Virender Sehwag smashed his first ton in this format of the game and ensured that the Delhi Daredevils would run home winners in a canter after it had once looked like it was a matter of formality that the Deccan Chargers won the game.
Chasing 176 was never going to be easy for the Delhi Daredevils. They had dropped Dave Warner for the game and had gone in with a more inexperienced batting line-up. This meant that the Daredevils needed a good start from Sehwag to get the side going.
Instead, the wickets began to fall in a clutter. Sehwag’s new opening partner, Aaron Finch, lasted all of two balls, while Naman Ojha and Venugopal Rao’s struggles were so profound that the Chargers looked well in control. At 25/3 in the sixth over, the Chargers needed to defend more than 150 in the last 14 overs and should have won the game 99 times out of 100.
Unfortunately for them, this was that 100th occasion when they went on lose it.
It was in the eighth over that Sehwag finally got going off the bowling of the debutant Ishan Malhotra. Malhotra smashed two sixes and a couple of fours to get going with a 23-run over and then followed it up 30 off the next two. By this time, he had also got to his half-century and the side were 85/3 in ten overs with 91 more to get.
Travis Birt got out for 4, but there was stopping Sehwag though. Amit Mishra had his moments for the Chargers though, when he had Sehwag lofting the ball to the fence but it was floored by Ankit Chavan before the same bowler had DB Ravi Teja dropping a sitter, to leave the bowler in frustration. Mishra went for 15 in that over before the Chargers were left with no option but to get Steyn back.
Steyn started off well with only four off his first four deliveries but there were a couple of boundaries off the next two deliveries to round off the over. The Sehwag century came in the 15th over and he celebrated it with two sixes off the next couple of balls and by the time Sehwag was out, the game had been well and truly wrapped up.
Earlier, the Chargers were propped to their score thanks to JP Duminy’s 55 and a sublime 44 off the bat of Sangakkara. Unfortunately for them, the Sehwag-force had left them rubbing their hands.