Centurion, May 23 (Inditop) Adam Gilchrist struck Delhi Daredevils like a hurricane to power Deccan Chargers into the finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the SuperSport Park here Friday.
Deccan Chargers, who finished right at the bottom of the table in the inaugural IPL last year, rode on skipper Gilchrist’s 85 off 35 balls to win the first semi-final by six wickets, chasing 154 with 14 balls to spare.
It was Deccan Chargers first win in five encounters over Delhi Daredevils, who topped the league table with 20 points. In Sunday’s final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, Deccan Chargers will meet the meet the winner of Saturday’s second semi-final between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings.
Put in to bat, Daredevils scored 153 for eight in 20 overs after Tillkaratne Dilshan made 65 and captain Virender Sehwag hit 35.
But the target seemed too small for Daredevils’ bowlers to defend as Gilchrist went on the rampage from the very first over and scored the fastest 50 in the IPL off just 17 balls.
The first over from Dirk Nannes set the tone for Deccan Chargers. Gilchrist smashed the Victorian fast bowler for five consecutive fours as 21 runs came off the over.
Sehwag replaced Nannes with left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan, who also found himself at the receiving end of Gilchrist’s fury. Gilchrist spanked the teenaged Sangwan for two fours and six as 17 runs came from the over.
Sehwag also tried his luck but Gilchrist hit him for 25 runs in his lone over.
It was Amit Mishra (3-19) who ended Gilchrist’s biltzkrieg but by then, 100 runs were on the board in 10th over. The Australian’s innings was studded with 10 fours and five sixes and by the time he departed, Deccan Chargers were on the threshold of a win.
Andrew Symonds and Tirumalsetti Suman scored 24 runs each to see Chargers through to the title clash.
Daredevils again failed to make the finals after having qualified for the semis for the second year running.
They recovered from a poor start but Sehwag (35) and Dilshan (65) played some solid knocks to take Daredevils to what seemed to a challenging total before Gilchrist went into overdrive. The duo added 85 runs for the third wickets after the first two wickets fell without any runs on the board.
rounak