IPL 4: Match No.46, DC vs DD, Sehwag maiden T20 century powers Delhi to 4 wkts win

A generous Delhi Daredevils let Deccan Chargers off on several occasions, dropped catches competing with dismissals off no-balls, to allow them get away to 175 on a pitch that had bounce and some movement for the fast bowlers. Kumar Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan had chances grassed, and JP Duminy and Daniel Christian would have been dismissed within the space of three balls, had Yogesh Nagar not over-stepped twice in the 15th over.

Two of the four reprieved batsmen made Delhi pay dearly. Sangakkara doubled his score from 22 to 44, and Duminy went better, clattering four sixes on his way to converting 23 off 18 deliveries into 55 from 31. Christian's poor form prevented him from capitalising, but even he managed to remain unbeaten, while Dhawan fell to one of the catches Delhi held.

The no-balls meant what should have been 114 for 5 in the 15th over turned into 175 for 5 in 20 overs. Nagar's over disappeared for 20, after the only other over of spin conceded 12.

Deccan had earlier broken their opening combination of Dhawan and Sunny Sohal - who had opened in their previous seven games - and sent in Ravi Teja at the top of the order. Teja struggled against the pace and bounce of Morne Morkel and the swing of Irfan Pathan before top-edging an attempted pull behind the wicket off Aavishkar Salvi, playing his first game of this IPL.

Sangakkara joined Dhawan but their partnership was a stop-start one, with punchy boundaries punctuated with swings-and-misses as the Delhi seamers got appreciable bounce from the greenish surface. Sangakkara and Dhawan have been Deccan's most consistent batsmen, and they showed why. Dhawan pinged Morne Morkel's first delivery of the match through extra cover, lofted Aavishkar Salvi's first ball over mid-on and used Irfan Pathan's outswing to guide him through point. Sangakkara, who manages to look stylish even when he goes hard, lofted Morkel for straight boundaries off successive deliveries.

But there were also several inside and outside edges that went for boundaries behind the wicket as the Delhi pacers troubled the duo. More luck was to come Deccan's way when Morkel dropped Sangakkara at short fine leg off Ajit Agarkar, and then failed to get near the ball when Dhawan top-edged a pull off the next delivery. Dhawan holed out in the same over, but Sangakkara hung around long enough to rub it in before slogging James Hopes to extra cover.

Sangakkara's aggression allowed Duminy to play himself in before launching into an assault that took Deccan to a stiff total. Duminy, who had made 77 runs in five previous games, walloped Hopes, Agarkar and Morkel over the midwicket boundary, hardly looking like the batsman who had been struggling for runs. When in flow, Duminy is an extremely busy player, and while he got the big hits away, he also ran hard in typical fashion. After crossing 25, he didn't play out even one dot delivery. Duminy added 71 in 33 deliveries with Christian, as Deccan made 108 in the last ten overs, a surge that provides enough cushion for Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma to go for the kill.