Determined Gambhir secures vital victory

Gautam Gambhir had been run out in three of his last four innings; Delhi Daredevils had lost three matches in a row and were struggling at 7 for 3 at the end of the second over in Chennai. The target of 113 suddenly seemed further away. The pitch was turning sharply, Chennai Super Kings' bowlers were pumped, and then there was the humidity.

But Gambhir batted with determination, fighting dehydration, to secure a valuable victory. It wasn't until 17.1 overs that Delhi's run-rate touched six for the first time in the chase and they overhauled 112 with eight balls to spare.

The first boundary came in the third over when, after four consecutive dot balls, Gambhir charged Ashwin and edged past slip. Dinesh Karthik, however, fell cheaply too and Delhi were 38 for 8. Gambhir, though, remained steely: there were no ambitious shots and he played the ball late, cutting and glancing for ones and twos. The humidity was getting to him, running between the wickets became increasingly hard, but Gambhir ensured the asking-rate never touched six until late in the innings.

Slowly but surely, Gambhir and Mithun Manhas steered Delhi to safety. Gambhir hit a brace of boundaries off Raina to end Chennai's challenge and pulled Bollinger for four in the 18th over to bring up 50 off 51 balls, and victory came soon after. Gambhir and Manhas' match-winning stand of 75 had taken 11.4 overs. The win lifted Delhi to 14 points and took them to third place in the league.