Vijay slays poor Daredevils

News

A superb hundred from Murali Vijay inspired the Chennai Super Kings to a crushing 86-run win over the Delhi Daredevils in the second IPL qualifier.

A superb hundred from Murali Vijay inspired the Chennai Super Kings to a crushing 86-run win over the Delhi Daredevils in the second IPL qualifier.
The result means that Chennai's remarkable resurgence continues as they progress to Sunday's final against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The defending champions were forced to rely on the results of others to make it through to the play-off phase, and having seen Deccan do just that for them by knocking out Bangalore, MS Dhoni's men still had to negotiate the Elminator against Mumbai and then the table-topping Daredevils before a place in the final would be theirs. Somehow, it all managed to come together for the men from Chennai when it really mattered.
Tongues were wagging before the game had even started when it was revealed that Delhi would enter the clash without leading wicket taker Morne Morkel, the South African a victim of injuries and international restrictions. With all-rounder Irfan Pathan ruled out by a hand injury, Delhi decided a like-for-like change was needed, with Andre Russell the man promoted. However, the introduction of the West Indian meant that one of the other foreign players had to drop out. Eric Simons and Virender Sehwag decided it was a bowler who could be sacrificed and so Morkel sat on the sidelines.
It proved a grave error.
Sunny Gupta was handed his debut in place of Morkel and the spinner went for a massive 47 in his three overs. While Gupta was disastrous, he certainly wasn't the only one. And it wasn't all the bowler's fault either.
Having failed to shine throughout the tournament, Murali Vijay chose the perfect moment to reward Chennai for the faith shown in him, blasting an incredible 113 off 58 balls.
It was a terrific display of batting from the opener who was lethal against both pace and spin.
The remainder of the top order provided good support before Dwayne Bravo's 33 off 12 took the Super Kings to a massive 222 for five, the highest score of this year's IPL.
The Daredevils needed to go all guns blazing from the start if they were to have any chance, but with such a ploy the chance of losing wickets was always high and in the end it was one they couldn't avoid.
With David Warner and Sehwag back in the hut inside four overs and with just 22 on the board, the game was all but over.
Mahela Jayawardene (55) and Ross Taylor (24) briefly threatened to make the contest interesting, but with wickets falling all too regularly, the Daredevils challenge petered out rather unspectacularly.

latest-news reports-previews

Latest