Charger's unbeaten winning run stopped by Daredevils

Table toppers Deccan Chargers' winning streak was brought to an end on Thursday by Delhi Daredevils who cantered to a comfortable six-wicket victory in an Indian Premier League match here.

Put into bat, Deccan Chargers recovered from a disastrous start to score 148 for 9 riding on Dwayne Smith's fighting 28-ball 48 balls but the total was not enough as Delhi romped home with eight balls to spare at the SuperSport Park.

Dinesh Karthik (35 off 40) and Tillakaratne Dilshan who remained unbeaten on 52 off 46 balls, added 79 runs in the fourth wicket partnership which was the cornerstone of Delhi's victory.

With 17 runs required off 12 balls, Dilshan cracked two boundaries off paceman Fidel Edwards in the 18th over and wrapped up the game with a six.

Delhi started on an attacking note as Gautam Gambhir clobbered the third delivery of the innings off Edwards to the fence, followed by Virender Sehwag's two consecutive fours off RP Singh in the next over.

But the Delhi openers again failed to give their side a solid start as both Sehwag (20) and Gambhir (17) departed cheaply. 

Sehwag, who smashed four boundaries during his 11-ball stay, was the first to return after falling prey to Deccan pacer RP Singh in fourth over, before Shoaib Ahmed dismissed South African AB de Villiers (5) in the next over.

Things only got complicated for Delhi when Gambhir who was middling the balls quite comfortably, also had to head back after Ahmed's wicket-bound delivery found his leg.

However, Dinesh Karthik and Tillakaratne Dilshan put up a creditable show to pull out the Delhi team from the slump as they added 79 runs on the board, before Karthik was given LBW off spinner Pragyan Ojha.

Earlier, Chargers got off to a disastrous start with their two in-form batsmen Adam Gilchrist (8) and Herchelle Gibbs (0) perishing quickly, but Dwayne Smith's 28-ball 48 helped the team to put up a competitive total.

The West Indian first paired up with T Suman and then Venugopal Rao to help the Deccans survive some mid-innings slump which made their life difficult before the strategy break.

Smith was particularly severe on Daniel Vettori hitting him for three consecutive boundaries in the 12th over as the Deccans accelerated the pace of scoring after the strategy break.

Azhar Bilakhia (22) and debutant T Suman (23) were the other notable contributors for the Deccans who have left Delhi Daredevils to score at an asking rate of 7.50 to win the game.

Dutch-born Australian paceman Dirk Nannes inflicted the Hyderabad team two vital blow in initial overs by sending back skipper Gilchrist in the third delivery of the match, followed by another cheap dismissal of Deccan's South African import Gibbs.

Gilchrist failed to middle a rising delivery off Nannes in the very first over as wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik pouched an easy catch.

The left-arm pacer, who was sharing the new ball with India discard Ashish Nehra, hit success again in his second over when Gibbs decided to go after a good-length delivery but his ambitious shot found AB de Villiers at mid-off.

With the team seemingly in trouble, Azhar Bilakhia paired up with birth-day Rohit Sharma in the middle to stitch up a 33-run partnership.

When both the batsmen got their eye in and started ticking the scoreboard by rotating the strike, Amit Mishra broke the partnership when Rohit Sharma who made 17 off 20 balls, fell prey to the leg spinner in the ninth over.

Deccans suffered another blow in the very next over when experienced New Zealander Daniel Vettori sent Bilakhia packing on 22, leaving the Hyderabad side at 55 for 4 after 10 overs.

Smith found good support from young T Suman, who scored 23 off just 14 balls, and added 65 run to the Deccans' total in fifth-wicket partnership, before the latter was dismissed by Delhi Ranji pacer Pradeep Sangwan.