The Delhi Daredevils beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by five wickets in their match at the Indian Premier League match on Monday, May 19, 2008 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. With this win, the Delhi team has now won six matches in their 12 matches and has kept alive their chances of reaching the last four. On the other hand, for Bangalore it was their ninth defeat in eleven matches. They are already out of the race.

The target set by the Bangalore Royal Challengers was a modest 155. Delhi began aggressively with their Captain Sehwag (47) and Gambhir (39), who put on 90 runs for the opening wicket in the first seven overs. Sehwag continued his brilliant form as he smashed nine boundaries and one six in just 19 balls. He was particularly merciless on Praveen Kumar. However, as a result of a great catch by Bharat Chilpi, Sehwag was sent back to the pavilion.

Subsequently, two overs later and after ten odd runs, Gambhir was run out by Cameron White. From here on, the Delhi Daredevils somewhat faltered. Tilekratne Dilshan (4), AB de Villers (21) and Karthik (6) were dismissed in quick succession. Anil Kumble and Dale Steyn did most of the damage for the Royal Challengers.

However, since the total was not very high, the Delhi Daredevils' team ensured that they got to it quite easily. Shikhar Dhawan (16 not-out) and Ferveez Maharoof (13 not out) ensured Delhi reached their target with 10 odd balls still left in the match. Earlier in the day, Shreevats Goswami's debut half century (52) and Misbah's 47 run stint resurrected the Bangalore team from a shabby start to carry their team to a modest 154 for 7 wickets.

Virender Sehwag won the toss and elected to field first. Except for a handful of players like Goswami and Misbah, the Royal Challengers never seemed to dominate the match at any stage. Goswami, who was part of India's under 19 World Cup victory, top scored with 52 runs off 42 balls which he made with the help of seven fours and one six. Mc.Grath began with his perfect line and length and gave away just one run in the opening over of the match and claimed the wicket of Chipli for two, who was caught by Rajat Bhatia in the fifth over.

Mc.Grath gave away just three and five runs in his next two overs which had the Bangalore team under some pressure. The Royal Challengers were struggling at 35 for the loss of one wicket in the first five overs. Sehwag then, made some intelligent decisions and shuffled his bowlers around who got success each time. For the home team however, it was the familiar top order who wobbled with Kallis (25) giving a catch to Dinesh Karthik who held on to it with a brilliant dive.

After the Bangalore team wobbled, it was left to debutant Goswami, who came one down to make a match out of it and the young wicketkeeper did a good job before Misbah complemented him with a fast knock which included two fours and four sixes.

Brief Scores

Bangalore Royal Challengers: 154/7 in 20 overs
Delhi Daredevils: 158/5 in 18.2 overs
Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 5 wickets
Man of the Match: S.P. Goswami (Bangalore Royal Challengers)