IPL Match 37th : Gambhir 79 of 48 Balls, Delhi ruins Dekhans

Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag must have had sweaty palms when he handed the ball over to Amit Mishra for the last over, but the leg-spinner came up tops to ensure that Hyderabad Deccan Chargers were kept behind by 12 runs.

In the match against Chennai Super Kings, Sehwag had handed the ball to Shoaib Malik with exactly the same number of runs - 15 - to get, and Delhi lost the match.

But on Thursday, Mishra was not to be denied, as he removed Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh off successive deliveries to ensure that Delhi claimed two vital points.

Mishra ended with figures of five for 17 off four overs, including the hat-trick, the second of the tournament after Lakshmipathy Balaji. Mishra's victims included Shahid Afridi and Herschelle Gibbs.

With this win, Delhi have added to the points table after three unimpressive games, and now have 10 points from 10 matches, while Hyderabad continue to languish in seventh spot, with just four.

For Hyderabad, it was a story of so near, yet so far, yet again as several batsmen got starts but did not finish things off. Afridi, Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, Scott Styris and Venugopal Rao all got off the ground but didn't stay around long enough.

Things were beginning to look grim for Delhi when Venugopal Rao hit two sixes and a four off Faraveez Maharoof, but the Andhra batsman had no answer for veteran Glenn McGrath's experience. With Venugopal Rao's departure, things tilted in Delhi's favour, and the first three balls of the last over ended the challenge.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir scored the fifth half-century of the Indian Premier League while Shikhar Dhawan scored his fourth as Delhi Daredevils reached 194-4 against Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

Gambhir scored a sensational 79 off 48 deliveries but some tight bowling from Vijaykumar along with some smart fielding ensured that Delhi did not cross the 200-mark.