Powerful half-centuries from Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik led the Delhi Daredevils to a 50-run victory in their crucial Champions League Twenty20 Group D clash with Wayamba.
Having lost their opening fixture of the tournament to the Victoria Bushrangers, the Daredevils had to beat the Sri Lankans to stand a chance of progressing and will only be guaranteed a place in the Super Eights if the Bushrangers beat Wayamba here on Tuesday.
Given the strength of the Australian side it seems likely that Delhi will go through to the next round without any points and will therefore need to win both of their Super Eight games to qualify for the semi-finals, but they will be encouraged by the return to form and fitness of Sehwag.
The opener displayed some of his trademark swagger in smashing 66 from 42 balls on a pitch where both New South Wales and Sussex struggled to get going earlier in the day. He was somewhat fortunate to de dropped on 16 after drilling a full, wide to delivery to cover where Jehan Mubarak put down a tough chance diving to his left, but otherwise looked his old self as he quickly took the game away from the inexperienced Wayambans.
With the platform set, Dinesh Karthik made sure Delhi had the perfect opportunity to repair their net run rate by backing Sehwag up with 61 from 41 balls. Ajantha Mendis eventually had the wicketkeeper-batsman stumped, but not before Karthik had sent three successive sixes, each one bigger than the last, into the stands between long-on and midwicket to bring up his fifty in 39 balls.
A score of 170 for six was formidable and Wayamba never got going. Dirk Nannes took three early wickets, bit the real highlight of the innings was the return of Glenn McGrath. Not seen since in action the Indian Premier League last year, he received a rousing ovation from the home crowd and duly picked up two wickets in typical McGrath fashion as Mubarak and Kauchal Lokuarachchi both had their off-stumps removed.
The 39-year-old understandably lacked pace, generally registering in the low 120s on the km/h speedgun, but was his usual metronomic self and proved highly effective on a slow pitch as he finished with figures of 2 for 20 from four overs.
Mahela Jayawardene added an air of respectability to proceedings with a spirited 53 from 40 deliveries, but then became Nannes’ fourth victim when he holed out to Tillakaratne Dilshan on the long-on boundary.
That killed the match stone dead - not that it had been in much doubt beforehand - and Wayamba ended up scratching their way to 120 for seven.
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