Kevin Pietersen blasted 103 not out to guide the Delhi Daredevils to a five-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers, while half-centuries from Faf du Plessis and Subramaniam Badinath helped the Chennai Super Kings beat the Pune Warriors by 13 runs in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
England batsman Pietersen smashed nine sixes and six fours off 64 balls in his maiden Twenty20 century as Delhi scored 162-5 in 19.1 overs after restricting Deccan to 157-8 at the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground.
Deccan earlier looked set for a huge total, before Shahbaz Nadeem (3-16) and Morne Morkel (3-23) pegged them back with timely strikes.
Photo: AFP
Parthiv Patel (45) and Shikhar Dhawan (44) were the main scorers for Deccan.
Pietersen struck three consecutive sixes off all-rounder J.P. Duminy in the 13th over of the innings to wrest command for his team, who lead the points table.
Delhi were struggling at 23-3 at one stage, with captain Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene back in the pavilion, but Pietersen batted himself in before unleashing a barrage of strokes. He smashed the winning shot, a six off Ankit Sharma, to get to his century.
Earlier, left-arm spinner Nadeem, who plays for the eastern state of Jharkhand in Indian domestic tournaments, had a first-ball leg before wicket dismissal of opener Dhawan as the batsman went for a reverse-sweep.
Nadeem also took the key wickets of Patel and Duminy to finish with 3-16, changing the course of the innings after Deccan were cruising along at 81-1 in nine overs.
Patel and Dhawan got runs, but the following batsmen succumbed cheaply as Morkel, who dismissed captain Kumar Sangakkara early in the innings, finished with a haul of 3-23.
Delhi have four wins from five games, while Deccan have lost all four of their matches.
At the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, openers Du Plessis (58) and Badrinath (57) figured in a 116-run stand that helped defending champions Chennai post a challenging total of 164-5.
The Pune batsmen failed to capitalize on good starts and could manage only 151-7 in reply.
Sourav Ganguly-led Pune won their earlier encounter against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai.
Both teams have three wins and three losses from six games.
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