Pune v Delhi, IPL 2012, Pune

Sehwag keeps Delhi Daredevils at No. 1

Cricket +

Delhi Daredevils 148 for 2 (Sehwag 87*) beat Pune Warriors 146 for 2 (Pandey 80*) by eight wickets 

Delhi Daredevils strengthened their reputation as the team to beat in IPL 2012 and marched to a convincing victory over Pune Warriors at the Subrata Roy Stadium, with four overs to spare. Warriors had won both previous matches at their new home stadium but were unable to collect a third success after posting too few runs with the bat despite a third-wicket stand of 145 between Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa.

Warriors bowlers had few answers for Virender Sehwag and struggled to keep him quiet as they were unable to find the right lines, despite a stern team talk by Allan Donald at the innings break. Their only success came with the run-out of Mahela Jayawardene and wicket of Kevin Pietersen, who top-edged to mid-on. Warriors' batsmen were made to rue a slow start and an inability to get going despite plundering 47 runs off the last four overs.

Full report to follow

20 overs Pune Warriors 146 for 2 (Pandey 80*, Pathan 1-24) v Delhi Daredevils 

	Robin Uthappa helped Pune Warriors recover to a competitive total © AFP  Enlarge

A 145-run third-wicket stand between Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa steadied Pune Warriors after they were rocked by two early strikes and took them to a respectable total.

Irfan Pathan and Morne Morkel did early damage, but the pair of Pandey and Uthappa consolidated despite being tied down by Delhi Daredevils' duo of left-arm spinners, Pawan Negi and Shahbaz Nadeem, who ended with identical figures of 0 for 22 off four overs. They were not given much room to accelerate at any stage of their innings, but Pandey and Uthappa negotiated a tricky pitch, with plenty of cracks, to set up an interesting chase.

Warriors started their quest for a third, successive win on their home ground in awful fashion. Jesse Ryder was guilty of a lazy push in front and was bowled by Irfan's second ball, which kept low and snuck through him. In the next over, Sourav Ganguly sliced Morkel to third man. Warriors were 2 for 2 and needed to recover quickly.

Pandey and Uthappa put up a fine resistance. They balanced caution with the need to attack fairly well early in their partnership. Pandey opened the boundary count with a confident pull over mid-on off Irfan and a superb drive on the up off Umesh Yadav.

As the pair started to break the shackles, Negi and Nadeem made sure they were restrained again. They gave away just 33 runs in the six overs they bowled in tandem and Negi should have had the wicket of Pandey as well. Pandey hit a full ball straight to Kevin Pietersen at long-on but Pietersen seemed to think it would not carry to him and allowed it fall safely.

Nadeem had the second chance to claim Pandey's wicket, when the batsmen hit a delivery straight back to him in his final over. The ball was hit hard and Nadeem got his hands up in time but could not hold on.

With Nadeem's spell over, Pandey looked to go bigger in the last six overs. He smacked Irfan for a four down the ground to reach his half-century off 40 balls and pulled him over midwicket in the same over to start the assault. Negi pulled them back, although he too dropped a return catch which would have sent Pandey back, leaving Yadav as the bowler to target.

Pandey used the extra pace to his advantage, hitting Yadav over long-on and past third man while Uthappa tried the same off Morkel. He inside-edged a yorker four four and smacked a ball to long-on before scooping a ball over short fine leg to bring up his half-century. Pandey and Uthappa scored 47 runs off the last four overs to the Warriors attack something to work with.