Gambhir, Dhawan provide early momentum

Fri, May 16 12:45 AM

Desperate to break their run of losses, Delhi's batsmen, who had failed their bowlers on more than one occasion in the past, came up with a strong performance after being put in by Hyderabad's Adam Gilchrist, amassing 194 in 20 overs. Viru's no show Virender Sehwag said after the last match, flummoxed by a quick ball from Shoaib Akhtar, that his strategy was simple, "I see the ball and I hit it," and was true to his word on Thursday.

Sehwag spotted a bit of width from P.Vijaykumar and laid into a cut shot that went straight down R.P. Singh's throat at third-man. While Sehwag had fallen as he has before in the past, for a duck, Gautam Gambhir continued his run of blinders in Twenty20 cricket, blasting Delhi out of a hole.

Rollicking on Even a painful blow on the knee, when he pulled and missed, that required medical attention could not stop Gambhir. Even by his standards Gambhir was striking the ball remarkably cleanly.

The fall of the early wicket meant that Shikhar Dhawan had to cut back on his adventurous strokemaking, but Gambhir kept the scoreboard ticking. Gambhir went after R.P., heaving him for a huge six over backward square-leg, then flat-batting the next ball over midwicket, capping things off with a charge down the pitch that resulted in a slashed four over point.

It would be the only 20-run over of the innings. Pressing home the advantage Having seen off a short period of consolidation - only 32 runs were scored between the 4th and 10th overs - Gambhir began to innovate.

He paddled Sarvesh Kumar very fine and followed it up by rocking back and cutting down to third-man. Gambhir brought up his half-century off only 34 balls, and then scored at a strike-rate of more than 200 for the rest of his innings.

When he was finally removed, Gambhir had made 79 off only 48 balls. While he had been extremely successful coming down the pitch, it was this that led to his downfall.

When Gambhir waltzed down a pitch a touch early, Pragyan Ojha fired the ball down the leg side for Gilchrist to whip off the stumps. Playing his role Dhawan has shown he has the talent, but on the day he showed fine temperament.

Resisting the urge to compete with the more flamboyant Gambhir, Dhawan waited for the loose balls. To his joy they were not in short supply as Hyderabad's bowlers failed to keep things tight.

Crucially, Dhawan resisted the urge to loft the ball, hitting hard and through the field rather than over it. When the last ball was bowled, Dhawan was still out there in the middle, unbeaten on 68 from 52 balls and had played his part to the fullest in Delhi reaching 194 for 4.

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