Jakati spins Chennai to victory

Gautam Gambhir, leading a Delhi Daredevils side missing two big players, opted to field on a pitch with plenty of run and 20 overs later looked a pleased captain. His quick bowlers sent back Matthew Hayden before he could really run riot, snapped a dangerous stand before it bolted, and checked Chennai Super Kings' big bats during the slog. From 112 for 2 in the 13th over, Chennai folded for 163 and Delhi, despite not having Virender Sehwag tonight, will come out with the momentum in their possession.

Delhi hardly got anything wrong in the field. Gambhir's decision at the toss turned out to be smart one, with Ashish Nehra and Pradeep Sangwan striking early and Nehra and Dirk Nannes hurting Chennai toward the end. Nehra got plenty of bounce early on, despite being tonked for six by Hayden, and used the short ball to intimidate Suresh Raina and snap wickets. Nannes returned for a second spell and found more than an extra yard of pace, touching 145ks regularly. With Daniel Vettori surprisingly left out the spinners backed the fast bowlers and the field placing was superb, with Tillakaratne Dilshan taking two catches just inside the ropes.

Chennai had first use of a good a pitch but didn't cash in. M Vijay replaced an out-of-sorts Parthiv Patel as opener but himself looked a Twenty20 misfit before Nehra tested him with a short ball and drew a top edge. Hayden, knocked to his feet when he took a ball from Pradeep Sangwan flush on the sternum, kept swinging away but fell to the same bowler when he lofted to long-on.

A 66-run stand in 6.5 overs followed, shared almost evenly by Raina and S Badrinath. With the ball still new and the field in, Raina boldly went over the top, getting off the mark with a front-foot six. When the field spread and spin came on, he chipped and tucked the ball smartly into the gaps but trying to up the tempo was taken right on the boundary line by Dilshan.

Badrinath had taken his time, scoring his first seven runs off 13 balls, but dumped the first ball after the tactical break for six off Dilshan. In the same over he took Dilshan for four down the ground, before hooking, pulling and cutting Sangwan to and over the boundary in the next over. Another solid slap past point followed but, like Raina, Badrinath tried to take it up a level and was yorked by an alert Rajat Bhatia.

With Albie Morkel and MS Dhoni batting and Jacob Oram to come, a total of 180 seemed a distinct possibility but the quick bowlers struck as Gambhir made a good call. With Bhatia's slow medium stuff keeping a check on runs, Gambhir called back Nehra for the 16th over. Nehra immediately struck with the short ball, taking a return catch from Morkel. Nehra was impressive all evening, varying his pace and banging it in on a testing length.

Then Nannes was ushered right back for the next over and took out Oram, who fell pulling. Nannes then found himself on a hat-trick when Dhoni top-edged a quick delivery to cover. The hat-trick was averted, only for Nehra to take his third with a fuller ball. Shadab Jakati picked up boundaries off the first two balls of the last over but Nannes got a third and the last ball resulted in a run out.

Chennai, last year's finalists, haven't found the mojo needed for another run to the top and will need to emulate the example Delhi set in the field.