Durban: Kevin Pietersen waged a lone battle but Delhi Daredevils simply lacked the firepower as they lost to Highveld Lions by 22 runs in the first semifinal of the Champions League Twenty20 on Thursday.
On a bouncy Kingsmead pitch, Highveld Lions got a decent 139 for five which was par for the course and then restricted Daredevils to only 117 for nine.
With Daredevils’ defeat, the challenge of IPL teams in this edition ended on a disappointing note.
The Daredevils batsmen, save Pietersen who scored 50 off 44 balls, looked in utter discomfort against Lions attack especially pacer Chris Morris. Morris bowled fast and straight as he gave away only seven runs in four overs taking prize wickets of David Warner and Pietersen.
Morris and find of the tournament left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso (2/17) gave away only 25 runs in the eight overs between them getting four wickets in the process. That was decisive although Daredevils never looked like being in the match once they started batting.
Virender Sehwag lasted only one delivery as he decided to loft the Sohail Tanveer straightaway but only managed to offer rival skipper Alviro Peterson an easy catch.
Warner, playing his first match of the tournament, started with couple of boundaries off Dirk Nannes – a flick and then a pull in-front of square.
Just when it looked like Mahela Jayawardene’s decision to include Warner at his own expense was a masterstroke, the Aussie failed to execute a short-arm pull off Morris as the bowler safely pouched onto the skier.
Unmukt Chand wasted precious deliveries before he was holed out in the deep after scoring only 9 off 20 balls.
Earlier, a half century by opener Ghulam Bodi and some effective hitting by Neil McKenzie saw Highveld Lions put up a respectable 139 for five after being put into bat.
The breezy day at Kingsmead did make life dificult for the Daredevils fielders as they dropped as many as three catches. The offenders were Unmukt Chand, Umesh and Kevin Pietersen.
McKenzie, whose innings of 46 came off just 28 deliveries, was named Man-of-the-Match and he praised all the bowlers for restricting Delhi. (PTI)