Pietersen ton destroys Chargers
The Deccan Chargers had no answer to an on-fire Kevin Pietersen as the Englishman walloped 103 to help Delhi to a five-wicket victory.
The Deccan Chargers had no answer to an on-fire Kevin Pietersen as the Englishman walloped 103 to help Delhi to a five-wicket victory at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Searching for their first win in the 2012 Indian Premier League, the Chargers were once again left to rue missed opportunities as a poor middle order showing and indiscipline in the field allowed the Daredevils to prosper.
Chasing 158 to win, the loss of early wickets did not deter Pietersen as he went about the business of dismantling the Delhi attack, bringing up his ton and winning the match with a straight six off the first ball of the last over.
The right-hander cracked a massive nine sixes and six fours as he racked up nearly two thirds of the Delhi total off just 64 balls. While he took a particular liking to the spin of JP Duminy and Amit Mishra, Pietersen was equally impressive against the pace bowlers.
The Chargers will be haunted by a horror stat though: they dropped Pietersen an incredible three times.
It all could have been so different for Deccan had they taken advantage of a solid platform created by their top order after Kumar Sangakkara had won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Whiel the skipper departed early, Shikhar Dhawan (44 off 29 balls) and number three Parthiv Patel (45 off 27 balls) were able to make more of a dent on the Delhi bowling figures as they helped the visitors 106 for three in 12 overs.
But with the duo both dismissed, the Deccan innings faltered as they proceeded to score just 50 in the last eight overs of their knock, with the runs coming at the cost of six wickets.
Indeed, had it not been for 16 runs collected from the penultimate over – bowled by Ajit Agarkar – the total would have been very much mediocre.
Morne Morkel and Shahbaz Nadeem were the pick of the bowlers with the duo both snagging three wickets. Morkel's scalps came at the expense of 23 runs while Nadeem conceded just 16.
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