SPORTS

Chennai win off the last ball

Source:PTI
May 08, 2008 19:36 IST

Chennai Super Kings beat Delhi Daredevils by four wickets and off the last ball of the innings at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Thursday.

Scorecard

S Vidyut (40), Stephen Fleming (44), captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (33) and Albie Morkel (30), all made significant contributions as the Chennai team scraped through to its fifth win in the competition and first after three straight losses.

Vidyut and the former New Zealand captain put on 62 runs for the opening wicket in just six overs to lay the foundation of the win.

Chennai moved up to third in the table with the win and Delhi dropped to fourth, after their third loss in seven matches.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir (80) smashed his fourth half century of the tournament to lead Delhi Daredevils to a challenging 187 for five.

Gambhir held the Daredevils innings together and shared a 121-run stand for the third wicket with fellow half-centurion Shikhar Dhawan (59) off 81 balls after his side stuttered for a while following the fall of captain Virender Sehwag (23) and AB de Villiers (0) in quick succession.

Gambhir, who survived two run out chances, hit 11 fours and a huge six off 49 balls before he was out in the 18th over off Laxmipathy Balaji.

Dhawan also batted beautifully at the other end and smashed six fours and two sixes from 46 balls for his 59 before becoming IPL debutant Balaji's second victim. 

Gambhir, who brought up his fifty with a huge six over mid-wicket boundary off Manpreet Gony to the deafening roar of nearly 30,000 Kotla crowd, overtook his captain Sehwag (270) and eventually snatched the Orange Cap from Deccan Chargers' Rohit Sharma (258) for being the highest run-accumulator.

Put into bat, the Daredevils began on a brisk pace with Sehwag and Gambhir rotating strikes and hitting odd balls to the boundary before they were separated in the fifth over with the home team skipper being bowled by a Gony beauty for 23 at team score of 45. 

Next man in de Villiers was cleaned up by his South Africa teammate Albie Morkel for first ball duck to send the home team to a spot of bother at 46 for two before Gambhir and Dhawan revived it.

For the Chennai side, Balaji and Morkel captured two wickets apiece conceding 35 runs each, while Gony chipped in one wicket for 36.

Source: PTI
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