IPL 4 Match 19: Deccan Chargers' Sunny Sohal, Sangakkara Sink Daredevils Despite Warner

The Deccan Chargers have had a rather wobbly start to the IPL 4 season. However, the winners of the IPL 2 season found a good opening player and one partnership that helped them get the better of the Delhi Daredevils at home.

sunny sohal deccan chargers

The Deccan Chargers would have been more confident given that they were playing away from the home jinx. Another factor in their favour was the fact that they had Amit Mishra in their midst. Mishra who played for the Daredevils until last year knows the surface too well at the Ferozeshah Kotla even if he confessed to enjoying it much.

But there was another factor that played well for the Deccan Chargers. Sunny Sohal, opening the batting, and the Deccan Chargers captain, Kumar Sangakkara forged a dramatic ninety-two run partnership for the second wicket to put the Delhi Daredevils under pressure.

Sohal's sixty-one runs off only forty-one balls was impressive from the standpoint that Sunny is still too inexperienced at the international level and yet tried to play through the innings and make a valuable contribution to get his team further up the points table. Sangakkara fell one short of a half century that greatly added weight to the Deccan Chargers' efforts.

Cameron White, who has been struggling for form, also helped himself to thirty-one runs as Daredevils struggled to contain the Chargers with none of their bowlers including the likes of Ashoke Dinda and Morne Morkel unable to provide the critical breakthroughs.

Chasing 168, the Delhi Daredevils should have considered themselves lucky given that the Chargers were not able to bat the hosts out of the match. Much rested on the opening pair and while David Warner played his part, without the partnership of the Delhi Daredevils captain, Virender Sehwag, the hosts' efforts seemed incredibly one sided.

Warner made a half century to keep Delhi's hopes alive and in Venugopal Rao found himself in a position to threaten the Deccan Chargers. But Mishra ended Rao's resistance and Shikhar Dhawan proved to the be ace up the captain's sleeve because in the solitary over that he bowled, he took Wanrer away from Delhi's hopes to reduce Delhi Daredevils to five down for ninety-nine.

Delhi managed as far as 152 but that was only because of the feisty efforts from James Hopes and Yogesh Nagar in the end but all in vain as Delhi left themselves with too much to do in the end.