Delhi reclaim top spot

AB de Villiers led Delhi to a comfortable victory with an unbeaten 50 from 38 balls

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Delhi Daredevils returned the the top of the Indian Premier League table with a commanding seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in East London today.

Rajat Bhatia claimed three wickets as Mumbai were bowled out for a paltry 116 in an innings which featured three run-outs.

AB de Villiers then hit an unbeaten 50 as the Daredevils reached their target in 18.5 overs to seal their sixth win in eight matches.

Openers David Warner (21) and captain Gautam Gambhir (19) had given the Daredevils a decent start, putting on 42 for the first wicket.

Warner was then dismissed by JP Duminy, the New South Wales batsman stepping out to hoist the off-spinner only for wicketkeeper Pinal Shah to complete a stumping as he failed to make contact.

The required run rate began to mount under an accurate spell from the Mumbai Indians spinners and Gambhir was caught in the deep five deliveries later as the Daredevils slipped to 46 for two.

But de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan (17) chipped away at the target with risky singles, the pair propping up the innings with a stand worth 61 for the third wicket.

The Daredevils needed 43 off the last five overs and captain Sachin Tendulkar brought himself on at the start of the 16th over after a lengthy chat with Duminy and Harbhajan Singh.

De Villiers, however, hammered Tendulkar for two fours and a six off the first three balls and then clobbered another boundary to leave Delhi needing only a run a ball from the last four overs.

Mumbai had earlier tweaked their batting order, dropping Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya and inserting Luke Ronchi.

Dwayne Bravo hit a brisk 35 for Mumbai, but received little in the way of support

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Ronchi opened the innings alongside Duminy, but both batsmen were dismissed for ducks inside the first over as Mumbai got off to a woeful start.

Ronchi’s innings lasted a mere couple of deliveries as he defended new ball bowler Dirk Nannes to cover and set off for a single.

Warner swooped on the ball and rattled the stumps at the non-striker’s end with a direct hit, with Ronchi well short of safety.

A couple of deliveries later, Duminy was caught behind leaving Mumbai in disarray.

Tendulkar was then run out for 15 with only 30 runs on the board, while wicketkeeper-batsman Pinal Shah, who was dropped by Pradeep Sangwan when on five, did not last long as he holed out to long-on off Bhatia.

The Indians recovered somewhat thanks to a 57-run stand between Bravo (35) and Abhishek Nayar (18).

Bravo accelerated the scoring by clobbering Amit Mishra for a six and hitting Nannes for two boundaries and a six in the left-arm paceman’s third over.

Nannes had conceded 15 runs off his first five deliveries in that over and sent down a wide on the last ball, but he had the satisfaction of snaring Bravo off the extra delivery and ending his resistance.

Nayar then fell off the next ball from Nehra and Bhatia ran through the tail, picking up two more wickets in the final over as Mumbai were bowled out.