Delhi Daredevils beat Cape Cobras by 30 runs

Delhi Daredevils defeated Cape Cobras by 30 runs in their inconsequential League B match of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 at Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi also broke Cape Cobras' unbeaten record in the Champions League.

Chasing a modest total of 114, Cape Cobras lost wickets at regular intervals as the treacherous wicket at the Feroz Shah worked to Delhi bowlers' advantage. The home team won without the services of Sehwag, Nehra and McGrath as their youngsters came good for them.

Dilshan failed to fire with the bat but returned with commendable figures of 16-2 with the ball. Nannes was fast, furious and brilliant with figures of 19-3. Unfortunately, this win does not do anything to Delhi's cause. They are still out of the tournament.

Earlier, Rory Kleinveldt and Justin Ontong scalped two wickets each as Cape Cobras restricted a hapless Delhi Daredevils to a paltry 114 for six.

Owais Shah struck an unbeaten 39 off 38 deliveries, while Dinesh Karthik scored a 24-ball 23 to help Daredevils reach the three-digit figure.

Kleinveldt and Ontong were the most successful bowlers for Cobras, who claimed same number of wickets giving away 31 and eight runs, respectively.

The match between the Delhi team and the South African side is only of academic interest as the hosts are already out of contention for a semi-final berth after going down to Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last match. However, for Cobras the encounter has some significance as if they win today, they will top the League B and play New South Wales in the final-four on Wednesday.

Put into bat, Daredevils went off to a disastrous start losing both their openers Gautam Gambhir (0) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1) with the four runs on the board after two overs. To much disappointment of the home fans, Sehwag, who was the only Daredevils batsmen to have shown promise in the cash-rich event, opted out of the encounter to make way for young Yogesh Nagar (10) in the dead rubber.

Captain Gambhir and Dilshan woeful run in the tournament continues as the duo once again failed to make any significant impact with bat and Rory Kleinveldt cleaned both the openers in the second over of the innings.

Karthik, however, seemed in great touch as the right-hander clobbered Kleinveldt for three consecutive fours to give some momentum to the hosts' innings. He shared 40 runs for the third wicket with Manoj Tiwary (19) before Claude Henderson went through the defence of Tiwary.

The Daredevils' problems were further compounded when Karthik fell to a mix-up, leaving the hosts' tottering at 46 for four wickets at the halfway mark.

Shah and Nagar then added 36 runs for the fifth wicket but just when it was time to accelerate after laying the foundation, Nagar departed after being caught at short-fine leg by Henderson off Ontong. The Daredevils struggle can be ascertained from the fact that it took their batsmen 17 overs to find the first six of the innings, courtesy Shah's huge hit over the long-on region off Ontong.