Dhawan, White lift Chargers to a formidable total

Hyderabad, May 10 (IANS) Shikhar Dhawan smashed an aggressive 84 and Cameron White 65 to take Deccan Chargers to 187 for four against Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium here Thursday.

Taking full advantage of the cloudy and pleasant conditions, the hosts set a stiff target before Daredevils, who are looking to reclaim the top position on the points table. For Chargers, who are languishing at the bottom with five points, the result will make no difference to their standing.

Dhawan and White, the most successful batsmen for Chargers in the tournament, played with all their guns blazing, providing much needed entertainment to a capacity crowd.

Putting behind their failure at the same ground against Kings XI Punjab Tuesday, the pair added 126 runs off 70 balls for the two wickets after Chargers were struggling at 33 for two in 5.5 overs.

Dhawan, who made a cautious start, played an aggressive knock of 84 off just 49 balls and it included nine hits to the boundaries and five over the fence. White on the other side scored 65 (7x4, 2x6) off 40 deliveries.

The pair, especially Dhawan, played aggressive shots, which were lustily cheered by the crowd. They unleashed an array of strokes, making Daredevils bowling looked ordinary.

The home team added 119 runs in the last nine overs. The 100 came in 13th over but after this Dhawan and White went after all the bowlers.

Dhawan completed his 400 runs in the IPL with a six off Andre Russell in the ninth over. He slammed two sixes off successive deliveries of left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem's third over, which went for 15 runs. The next over from Irfan Pathan saw Dhawan smashing him all around the wicket. He hit a four, a six and another four of successive deliveries to reach his 50 off 37 balls. Pathan conceded 16 runs in his third over.

There was no stopping for Dhawan, who hit two boundaries in the next over from Varun Aaron. Cameron White also cut loose, smashing three fours in the 15th over, bowled by Russell, who made his IPL debut.

Dhawan did not even spare Morne Morkel, one of the most successful bowlers of the tournament. Morkel, who had given only seven runs in his first two overs, went for 17 runs. Dhawan scored his last 31 runs from 12 deliveries.

Earlier, Morkel gave first breakthrough to the visitors when he had Harris (19) caught by Jayawardene in the fifth over.

Captain Kumara Sangakkara 4 (5b, 1x4) failed yet again. He was caught at short mid-wicket by Nadeem off Aaron while trying another to hit another boundary. At 33 for two in 5.5 overs, the hosts were struggling.

For Daredevils, Aaron was impressive with his figures of 4-0-30-2. Morkel claimed one for 32. Pathan was expensive with 46 runs in his four overs.