So, Delhi are there in the race!

Well it would have been a mismatch had the Delhi team lost out this time with them being the highlights of the tournament in the past three editions of the Indian Premier League. The Delhi Daredevils made it to the semi-finals of the tournament in the first two editions of the tournament and unluckily lost the plot in the semi-finals to Hyderabad in 2009. This time, the Delhi team was as though they would be the first to finish off the tournament and head back home with Virender Sehwag cursing over his misfortune. But, it looks like they are back in the game after yesterday's win over Pune.

The Delhi Daredevils scripted a miraculous turnaround with them chasing down the highest total of the tournament so far surpassing the Kings XI Punjab's victory over Chennai Super Kings where they successfully chased down 188 runs on the board at Mohali. That was the first wonder of the tournament which was done by a team which has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons. And, after that feat, the Delhi Daredevils have done this yesterday at Mumbai. It was not a one man show from the Delhi Daredevils team with all the 9 batsmen contributing to the success of the team.

Of course, keeping in mind the total of the Pune Warriors, a score of 187 was a tough one to chase and the reason for that was the charging done by Yuvraj Singh and Jesse Ryder and Yuvraj Singh who played a captain's knock. Though this was not sufficient to achieve a victory, that was more than sufficient to give the Pune Warriors' captain- Yuvraj Singh the man of the match award. There was also Jesse Ryder who scored 60 runs at the rate of 222.0 for every hundred balls he faced off just 27 balls with 5 sixes and an equal number of boundaries.

But, the Pune Warriors lacked the team work that was present in the Delhi Daredevils team with at least 7 out of the nine batsmen making it count for their team. The highest individual score for the Delhi Daredevils was 46 scored by David Warner followed by Virender Sehwag's 37. But, neither David Warner nor Shahbaz Nadeem (for his bowling) was awarded the man of the match. If number of sixes scored should be considered, then the Pune Warriors win with them having 11 hits out of the ground compared to the 9 hit by the Pune Warriors. In the end, the Delhi team can be bet upon.

What a major difference?

Well if any team cannot even chase down a small total of 221 in the quarter-finals of a world cup, then expecting something special from them would just be as stupid as it can get whatsoever. And that was what the South Africans were found doing yesterday against New Zealand at Dhaka. And, with winning being totally out of question, just look at the margin of victory the Kiwis had against the Proteas and you can realize that the Proteas have just been better than the West Indies. I can no doubt say that Bangladesh and Ireland played better cricket than the South Africans.

One has to just take a look at how many times in world cups the South Africans have been losing to the Kiwis since their entry into world cricket in the 1992 world cup. If not for the 1996 and 1999 world cups, New Zealand have been able to take home twice of what the South Africans have managed. This was the third consecutive time that New Zealand beat South Africa in world cups. I just felt pity to see Shaun Pollock go in first to the presentation area despite scoring 307 runs and Herschelle Gibbs missing out to Stephen Fleming for the MoM award.

You can just go through the scorecard top see that there were no big hitting by the New Zealand batsmen. All the New Zealand batsmen did was to wait for an opportunity and strike at the right time. The entire New Zealand innings consisted of just lone six from the blades of Kane Williamson. There was a 114 run 3^rd wicket partnership between Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor which was instrumental in the eventual score of 221.The South Africans couldn't even bowl the New Zealand batsmen all-out and allowed them to play all their 50 overs which laid the foundation to their defeat.

The match should not go down as another chucking by the African team for, this was anybody's game unlike in 1992-1999 world cups. The South African scorecard which at one point of time read 121/3 in the 27^th over eventually ended at 172 all out meaning only 51 runs could be scored in 16 odd overs at the rate of just over 3 runs an over losing 7 wickets. This was the second time the South Africans were found doing this. Previously, against England as well, they succumbed chasing 173. This time, had this been the score against England there would have been another tie for England.

Unbelievable from New Zealand

Well it was unbelievable for New Zealand to beat Sri Lanka first of all for being the underdogs prior to going into the match and secondly for losing quick wickets with time and overs following suit and thirdly with spinners like Muralitharan and Jayasuriya haunting their team like devils. But, in the end New Zealand had a last gasp for victory when they eventually won the game by 2 wickets with one ball to spare. New Zealand have always been losing to Sri Lanka in all three formats of the game. Since 2007, New Zealand have lost to Sri Lanka in T20 world cups.

This time, it was not Jayasuriya who did the damage either with the bat or with the ball. For a change, one can see Jayasuriya taking to the crease in the 7^th position after the sixth wicket fell. May be that was the reason why Sri Lanka had to end their innings with such a small total on the board. With someone like Jayasuriya on the top, either there would be a wicket fallen or else there would be a steady rise in the scoreboard with Jayasuriya smashing every bowlers at will. Yesterday, Jayasuriya never got to face the ball with the 6^th wicket falling in the 120^th legal delivery.

Main batsmen like Sangakkara, Chandimal and Dilshan failed with the bat leaving Jayawardene with the tough task which he accomplished well. Jayawardene was at the crease with the top three wickets of top batsmen falling at a wrong time. Whatever, the batting of Sri Lankan team was a complete failure. One can see the devastating spell of Shane Bond who scalped two important wickets of Kapugedra and Mathews in back to back deliveries failing which the Sri Lankan score would have well passed 150. On the other hand, Shane Bond was the most successful bowler in terms of runs given.

Likewise, New Zealand's run chase didn't start on a high when they lost their first wicket of Brendon McCullum even before the scoreboard had something on it. Similar to Jayawardene, Jesse Ryder held his nerve in staying on the crease despite wickets falling from the other end. Ryder was the second one to go and there followed a series of wickets falling with hardly any individual scores making news. It was Nathan McCullum's quickfire 16 which sealed the game for the Kiwis. But, the man of the match should have been either Jayawardene or Jesse Ryder. McCullum's efforts can hardly be seen.