Skipper Virender Sehwag butchered a lacklustre Pune Warriors India attack as Delhi Daredevils romped home by eight wickets in an Indian Premier League encounter in Pune on Tuesday.
Sehwag scored 87 off a mere 48 balls as Delhi extracted sweet revenge for the defeat at the hands of the same opposition three days back.
Sehwag's innings was studded with 10 fours and three sixes as Delhi won with as many as four overs to spare.
He added 89 runs for the second wicket with Kevin Pietersen (27 off 21) in just 8.2 overs.
Earlier, despite a few dropped catches, the Daredevils rode on a disciplined bowling effort to restrict the Warriors to a modest 146 for two.
When the visitors batted, Mahela Jayawardene initially went for his shots, while Sehwag was happy to play second fiddle. But after the Sri Lankan was run-out for a 14-ball 18, the latter freed his arms.
After sending the ball twice to the fence in one of Ashish Nehra's overs, Sehwag hit Luke Wright, who replaced Angelo Mathews for this game, for a four and a six off consecutive balls.
Pietersen joined the party and the duo smashed the Pune bowlers at will to take the team past the 100-mark in the 11th over.
Rahul Sharma gave the hosts a breakthrough by sending back Pietersen, but, by then, the damage had been done. It was just a matter of time before Sehwag and Ross Taylor took the Daredevils home.
Earlier, Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa scored half centuries to help Pune Warriors recover from a disastrous start.
Pandey, who till this match wasn't exactly in his element, having failed in the first four outings, roared back to form with an unbeaten 80 off 56 balls, which had seven boundaries and three sixes.
His unbroken partnership of 145 for the third wicket with Uthappa (60 no, 58 balls, 6x4) ensured that the home team put up a fighting total.
Having scored only 50 in the first 10 overs, the Karnataka duo smashed 96 off the remaining 10.
Electing to bat first, Warriors had a bad start as Irfan Pathan accounted for the in-form Jesse Ryder with the second ball of the match. The Kiwi left-hander played on as the delivery kept a bit low.
Things got even worse for the hosts as skipper Sourav Ganguly charged out against Morne Morkel in the next over only to get a thick outside edge down to Shabaz Nadeem at third-man.
With Pune tattering on 1 for 2, it was left to Uthappa and Pandey to resurrect the innings.
After starting off in subdued manner, both batsmen went for their shots bringing up the 50 of the Pune innings in the 10th over of the match.
Pandey was lucky to get a 'life' after Pietersen put him down at long-on off the bowling of Pawan Negi in the ninth over.
The Karnataka lad again got lucky when Nadeem dropped him off his own bowling in the 14th over. The 22-year-old, however, did not get bogged down by the incident as he hammered Pathan over the mid-wicket fence in the next over for the second six of his innings just after bringing up his half-century in the previous delivery.
As Pandey went for his shots, Uthappa ably supported him, rotating the strike well. He also hit occasional boundaries.
However, it was Pandey, whose attractive strokes including a steer off Umesh Yadav, was a real treat.
