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Delhi Daredevils beat Deccan Chargers by 12 runs

Deccan Chargers have won the toss and elected to bowl and Delhi Daredevils scored 173 for seven and dramatically they won by 12 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match.

A tragic but dramatic collapse. As Gilchrist said they committed cricket suicide. Gilchrist gave Deccan off to the perfect start, smashing 64 off 33 balls but once he departed things slowed down a bit. Symonds continued his good form. But unfortunately they have lost seven wickets for 12 runs in 17 balls to throw it away, and squander an excellent chance to reach the top of the table. Bhatia's over did the trick, and held his cool superbly in the end to return excellent figures of 4 for 15. Delhi are now safely through to the semis.

Delhi Daredevils set a highly challenging score. They had been kept quiet in the middle overs, especially after the departure of Dilshan but some sound batting by de Villiers and a critical contribution by Karthik, who took 23 off the last over, has given their team a immense boost. Delhi's weakness was helped by Deccan's poor fielding who put down three catches.

Delhi Daredevils are almost secured a semi-final berth. They have 14 points with a match in hand over the teams at No. 2 and 3, and two games in hand over the rest. Barring an astonishing change in form for the worse, they are virtually safe. Delhi’s success is a result of them being the most matured side in the competition. Unlike most teams, they are strong in both batting and bowling departments and found their winning combination early in the tournament.

The victory over Rajasthan would have given Deccan Chargers a lot of confidence. The arrival of Andrew Symonds has certainly given a spark to their middle order, and they now have Symonds, Sharma and Dwayne Smith - all capable of taking charge of an innings in the middle order to complement Gilchrist at the top. Chaminda Vaas also made some difference with his accurate bowling. Overall, the side appears to have struck the right balance.

Deccan Chargers: AC Gilchrist, Abhinav Kumar, AA Bilakhia, MS Bisla, H Das, FH Edwards, HH Gibbs, Harmeet Singh, RJ Harris, Jaskaran Singh, D Kalyankrishna, VVS Laxman, PP Ojha, DB Ravi Teja, PM Sarvesh Kumar, RG Sharma, SM Shoaib, LPC Silva, RP Singh, DR Smith, SB Styris, TS Suman, A Symonds, WPUJC Vaas, Y Venugopal Rao, DP Vijaykumar, AS Yadav, DNT Zoysa

Delhi Daredevils: V Sehwag, R Bhatia, PD Collingwood, AB de Villiers, TM Dilshan, G Gambhir, KD Karthik, AB McDonald, GD McGrath, MF Maharoof, VY Mahesh, M Manhas, A Mishra, Y Nagar, DP Nannes, A Nehra, AM Salvi, P Sangwan, OA Shah, DL Vettori, DA Warner, T Yadav, U Yadav