There was a time, not too long ago, when Dinesh Karthik looked like he was set for a fairly long international career. Behind the wickets, he was more athletic than most who had donned the big gloves for India. And while Mahendra Singh Dhoni had sealed his spot in the one-day team, Karthik held on to his place in the Test XI as a batsman after being pitch-forked into opening the batting. Over the last tour of Australia however, with Virender Sehwag back in the scheme of things, Karthik had officially been demoted to Passenger, Team India. Today at the Ferozeshah Kotla though, he bull-dozed his way back into the limelight with an innings of astonishing force — frustration at having warmed the benches, frustration of having failed repeatedly with the bat in the IPL — all taken out on a Mumbai Indians attack that seemed to have lost all its teeth after Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir’s brief, but effective, early assault. Delhi started their chase as if they needed to get 178 off 10 overs. Eventually, they got there with one ball to spare. Karthik, who came in to bat at 89 for four, finished with 56 off 32 balls, almost single-handedly keeping Delhi’s slim semi-final hopes alive.They have 15 points from their 14 league matches, and now need to pray Chennai (14 in 13) and Mumbai (12 in 12) don’t win the rest of their games. Chennai play Deccan Chargers in their last game while Mumbai take on Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers.Blast at the startVirender Sehwag scored 18 of the 19 runs in the first over, carting Shaun Pollock for three boundaries and a massive six over mid-wicket to get the hosts off to a much better start than they might have imagined after Mumbai Indians had put up 177 on the board, riding on Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar’s 70-run opening partnership. The skipper fell first thing in the second over though, cleaned up by an Ashish Nehra in-cutter that chopped him in half. Gambhir took over destroying duty, his nine-ball 19 taking Delhi to 50 off just 4.4 overs. But just when it seemed as if they would cruise through, he skied one to fine-leg. With their openers gone, in the context of this tournament, Delhi were practically into their tail.Taking the spotlightShikhar Dhawan, who has been among the runs, was joined by Manoj Tiwary, who hasn’t. Together, they gave the chase a semblance of stability, but Dhawan fell for a 29-ball 27, a flat-batted swipe going straight down long-on’s throat. And when Dwayne Smith got through the defences of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Delhi were practically out of it. That’s when Karthik walked in to the middle. Along with Tiwary, he took Delhi to the final stretch — a flurry of fours and sixes bringing the required rate crashing from an intimidating 10. But things swung into a twist again, when Tiwary was run-out for a well-compiled 36. But the kind of touch he was in, Karthik couldn’t have cared less. The spotlight was within sight, and he was not going to miss this time.Mumbai IndiansS Jayasuriya c Dilshan b Mishra (42b,6x4,5x6) 66 S Tendulkar b YoMahesh (16b, 3x4) 18 D Smith c Geeves b YoMahesh (17b, 2x4) 17 R Uthappa not out (23b, 5x4, 2x6) 46 A Nayar c Dilshan b Geeves (3b) 1 S Pollock b Maharoof (15b, 2x4) 16 S Chitnis c Dhawan b YoMahesh (4b) 3 P Shah c Geeves b YoMahesh (1b)0 A Nel run out (Sehwag) (0b)0 Extras (lb-1, w-7, nb-1): 9 Total (8 wickets; 20 overs): 176 FoW: 1-70, 2-107, 3-112, 4-114, 5-143, 6-162, 7-163, 8-176.Bowling: McGrath 4-0-39-0, Geeves 4-0-50-1, Maharoof 4-0-27-1, YoMahesh 4-0-36-4, A Mishra 4-0-23-1.Delhi DaredevilsG Gambhir c Smith b Nel (9b, 2x4, 1x6) 19 V Sehwag b Nehra (6b, 3x4, 1x6) 18 S Dhawan c Chitnis b Smith (29b, 2x4, 1x6) 27 M Tiwary run out (Jayasuriya) (29b, 5x4) 36 T Dilshan b Smith (1b) 0 D Karthik not out (32b, 4x4, 3x6) 56 F Maharoof not out (13b, 4x4) 20 Extras (lb-2, w-1): 3 Total (5 wickets; 19.5 overs): 179 FoW: 1-20, 2-50, 3-89, 4-89, 5-130.Bowling: Pollock 3-0-33-0, Nehra 3.5-0-30-1, Nel 3-0-31-1, Kulkarni 3-0-26-0, Smith 3-0-22-2, Jayasuriya 4-0-35-0.
