In his opening game as the Delhi Daredevils skipper,Gautam Gambhir led by example to take his team to a five-wicket win over Punjab Kings XI. Chasing a modest score of 143,the visitors were 79/4 in the 13th over and the locals saw a window of opportunity. But Delhi won on the penultimate delivery with Gambhirs knock of 72 getting him the Man of the Match award. The big two,Virender Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan,got our early and it was left to Gambhir to anchor the innings. The Kings XI pacers Irfan Pathan,Sreesanth and Yusuf Abdullah kept the batsmen on a leash. But Gambhir waited for the right opportunity. As the spinners came on and the ball skidded through,Gambhir used deft placement to score his runs,showing remarkable poise despite the pressure. Gambhir fell in the last over,but old hand Mithun Manhas was there to hit the winning runs. The Kings XI batting came a cropper in the evening. Opener Ravi Bopara did manage a half century but none of the big guns,Kumara Sangakkara,Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardena,fired. Besides Gambhir,the other stand-out performer for the Daredevils was the pacer Dirk Nannes. His outstanding figures of 4-0-12-2 went a long way in Kings XI being restricted to 142. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra,too,did his bit as he restricted the run flow in the middle overs with a spell of 4-0-23-2.
