Title: IPL 1st SF: Gilchrist cyclone demolish Delhi away to reach the final

Desc:

Teams

Delhi Daredevils (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, Virender Sehwag(c), Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Rajat Bhatia, Dinesh Karthik(w), Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra

Deccan Chargers (Playing XI): Adam Gilchrist(w/c), Herschelle Gibbs, Tirumalsetti Suman, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Azhar Bilakhia, Ryan Harris, Harmeet Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha

Gilchrist played a blistering knock of 85 off just 35 balls with the assistance of 10 fours and 5 huge sixes to upset or rather outclass Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets.

Gilchrist, who was at his ferocious best tonight, slammed the fastest IPL fifty to give his team a much-needed platform to overhaul Delhi’s total. Gilchrist was in an attacking mood ever since he came to the crease, hitting Dirk Nannes five fours in the very first over to set the tone for his team’s run-chase. He reached his fifty off juts 17 balls.

Taking over the captaincy from the struggling VVS Laxman before the beginning of the IPL 2009, he changed the fortune of his team with his powerful batting and inspiring captaincy. He led by example throughout the whole tournament, giving his team flying starts in countless number of times. It’s due to his batting that Deccan reached the semi-final this year.

But he took his batting to a new level here on Friday against one of the best attacks of the tournament. He spared no bowlers, his shots went to the every corner of the park. Such was the dominance of his powerful batting that Dirk Nannes, one of the best bowlers of event, had to be hided lest the bowler forgett how to bowl in the future.

When he left the field, picked up by leggie Amit Mishra, his team needed only fifty more to score in more than 10 overs, an easy equation considering the batsmen that had to come after him.

After his departure another Aussie, the burly Andrew Symonds took the charge of carrying the good work done by his former Australian teammate. Symonds did not disappoint either as he started torturing the Delhi bowlers, whose morale already took a beating during the time when the Deccan captain was at the crease.

Amit Mishra tried his level best to stop the run-feast by claiming 3 wickets. After sending devastating Gilly to the pavilion, he picked up Azhar Bilakhia (3) and Andrew Symonds (24) but it was not enough as other Delhi bowlers simply lacked the stomach for fight which was shown by their batsmen earlier when Delhi post a competitive 153/8 despite started off disastrously.

Finally, it was left to T Suman (24*) and Rohit Sharma (5*) to complete the formalities of overtaking Delhi’s total which they did with 14 balls to spare.

It was a great match considering the way Delhi fought back on the piggyback of Dilshan and Sehwag despite taking the early beating and posted a competitive 153/8.

Gilchrist said he was happy that the players were responding to what he was telling them. "We have encouraged each of our players to work hard and they have done that they have responded.

"It is pretty basic stuff but the way we were last in the table we had to really get back to the basics and try to build our foundation. The players have responded well and they now believe that they can compete at this level," he said.

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