Mishra seals win for Delhi
by Ciaran Baynes, 15 May 2008
Amit Mishra took a hat-trick in the last over to seal a five-wicket haul and a 12-run victory for Virender Sehwag's Delhi Daredevils over the Deccan Chargers.
An exciting game came down to the last over with 15 runs required off it and Sehwag raised some eyebrows by throwing the ball to the young leg spinner.
Three balls and three wickets later, there were no complaints, with the game then effectively over.
Delhi had set Deccan a big total of 194 to chase after Gautim Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan put on 133 runs for the second wicket.
The tournament's leading scorer Gambhir hit 79 from 48 balls, while Dhawan (68 not out off 52) kept the momentum going in the final overs.
Sri Lankan duo Farveez Maharoof (19 off 11) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (16 off 6) helped take their score to near 200 with late cameos.
The total was a tough one to chase but Deccan set about their task immediately with Shahid Afridi put up to open the order with Adam Gilchrist.
After Gilchrist fell for 14 off 9 balls, it looked like Deccan could crumble as they have so many times in this tournament.
Afridi and Herschelle Gibbs - disappointments in the tournament with the bat beforehand - grasped the mantle though and led the Chargers to the second quickest half century of the tournament off just 27 balls, dishing out the treatment to two of the most accurate bowlers in the tournament, Glenn McGrath and Mohammed Asif.
'Boom Boom', showing his full array of shots, reached 33 off 14 balls (including three fours and two sixes) before skying the first delivery of Mishra.
The leg-spinner took care of Gibbs (22 off 22), two overs later bowling the South African, and it seemed over for Deccan.
A fine innings from Rohit Sharma (35 off 18), in partnership with the fairly subdued Styris (29 off 28), put them in contention and Venugopal Rao (34 off 18) gave them a chance before falling to McGrath in the penultimate over.
A Raja Teja six from the same over gave Deccan a chance, but he fell two yards short of the long off boundary from Mishra's first delivery and then Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh fell in the next two balls to give the man-of-the-match a rare Twenty20 five-wicket haul and his team the match.