Virender Sehwag produced a blazing half-century under pressure to steer Delhi Dardevils to a competitive 157 for seven against Kochi Tuskers Kerala in their Indian Premier League match here on Saturday.

Sehwag played a true captain’s knock, 80 off 47 balls, as it came on a very difficult track and under difficult circumstances.

Batting was a big challenge on the Nehru stadium wicket as some balls did not bounce above the ankle and some went up to the chin of the batsmen.

Delhi were gasping 37 for three at one stage but Sehwag played sensibly as he first guarded his wicket when his teammates were vanishing from the other end and then played his usual aggressive self.

Yogesh Nagar (22) and Travis Birt (20) also supported Sehwag well as they shared 56 and 41 runs stand with their skipper for the fourth and fifth wickets respectively.

Sehwag got out in the 18th over when he attempted a big shot off Vinay Kumar, but not before hitting eight fours and five sixes.

Seamer S Sreesnath was most successful bowler for the hosts as he gave away just 10 runs in his four overs and scalped two top—order batsmen.

It was a horror start for Delhi after electing to bat as Sreesanth bowled David Warner (3) and trapped Naman Ojha (0) in his first over, second of the innings.

But both the batsmen were unlucky as both the balls kept low, specially the ball in which Ojha was declared lbw, was almost unplayable.

The track was double paced and the uneven bounce made life tough for the batsmen. Sehwag though was in no mood to go without a fight as he quickly extracted four boundaries, three off the RP Singh’s overs.

Delhi reached 34 for two in six but Ravindra Jadeja made it 37 for three by trapping Y Venugopal Rao (1) and Delhi’s innings was in complete disarray.

There was no space for extravagance and Sehwag too decided to hold the one end tight as Delhi reached 46 for three after 10 overs.

The fourth boundary of the innings came from the blade of Yogesh Nagar, who dispatched one from Vinay Kumar to the extra cover fence.

Sehwag upped the ante by hitting Jadeja for back-to-back sixes and then raised his half-century by pulling Vinay Kumar for a six over mid-wicket in the 15th over.

Nagar was run out in the same over but now there was no stopping Sehwag, who smashed Balachandra Akhil for a six and two fours in the next over.

Spinner Romesh Powar was given the similar treatment but Sehwag could play till the end.


Keywords: Spinner Romesh Powar ,Balachandra Akhil ,Sehwag Jadeja , Vinay Kumar,Virender Sehwag ,Kochi Tuskers ,Indian Premier League ,Nehru stadium ,Seamer, S Sreesnath ,David Warner ,Naman Ojha