Openers swap does trick for Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils finally have their first points of IPL 2013, after cruising to a nine-wicket win against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. While it was quite a poor showing by Mumbai's new-ball bowlers, credit would have to go to Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene for captialising on the chances offered them and allowing Daredevils to close out the chase of 162 with three overs to spare.

Daredevils rejigged their batting line-up, reuniting Sehwag and Jayawardene at the top, and the pair went on to become only the third combination in the IPL to put together a second century opening partnership - they added 151 at almost 10 an over. Speaking after the match, Jayawardene said Daredevils' injury issues had prompted him to bat in the middle order at the start of the tournament. "Losing Kevin [Pietersen] and Jesse [Ryder] prompted me to go down the order as we needed some solidity in the middle. But since our batting unit did not click, it was a call that I had to take," he said. "I spoke to David [Warner] about it and told him that I wanted him to play the role that Kevin played last year."

Sehwag's style suited him, Jayawardene said: "We complemented each other very well. As it is, Viru took a lot of pressure off me and my job was to give him more strike. His batting also allowed me to play freely and I could control the innings. We kept talking to each other, that we should not get carried away with good start."

After scores of 12, 25 and 17, and time out due to a recurrence of back trouble, Sehwag finally clicked, slamming 95 off 57 and batting through the innings. "I have seen how passionate Viru was about performing well. There is a lot of fire in his belly," Jayawardene said. "He was also coming off injury, the back spasms. So you've got to give him a bit of time [to get back into touch]."

Mumbai Indians captain Ricky Ponting was disappointed in the lines his bowlers delivered at the start. While Jasprit Bumrah bowled a lot outside off, Munaf Patel kept straying onto leg stump with fine leg up. "I think we could have stopped Sehwag getting off to the kind of start he got off to. With Sehwag, what's important is to tuck him up at the start," Ponting said. "Today, we gave him too many scoring options early on and let him get away. All the line and lengths that we spoke about, we weren't able to execute."