Delhi Daredevils 152-6 (Virender Sehwag 63, Yogesh Nagar 27, Pankaj Singh 2-25) beat Rajasthan Royals 151-3, Ajinkya Rahne 84, Rahul Dravid 40,  Morne Morkel 1-26) by one run.

An initial punch by Virender Sehwag and clever bowling in the 19^th over by Morne Morkel led Delhi Daredevils to a thrilling win vs. Rajasthan Royals.

Delhi Daredevils smashed 152 for the loss of six wickets and Rajasthan Royals  missed the victory boat by mere two runs with 7 wickets in hand in the allocated 20 overs.

Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his super knock of 63 from just 39 balls while opening the innings.

The 39^th match of the Indian Premier League was played at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi on Sunday, April 29, 2012

Earlier, the captain of Delhi Daredevils, Virender Sehwag, won the toss and elected to bat first with a vision to set a defendable target for the visitors. They had a terrible start by losing the two top order batsmen, Mahela Jayawardene and Kevin Pietersen for just 19 runs in the first three overs. Ross Taylor joined with the skipper who opted to attack and got a boundary almost in every over and besides losing a couple of wickets the score the score was enhanced to 53 at the end of the seventh over.

Sehwag achieved his successive fourth fifty of the tournament on the last ball of the 10^thover by sending the ball reeling out of the mid wicket fence for four. He created history while becoming the first ever batsman in the history of the IPL to score four consecutive fifties. Taylor kept on securing his end as Virender Sehwag gathered 11 runs in the 11^th over with one six and a four. The duo took the score to 99 when Sehwag was caught at sweeper by Ashok Menaria off Brad Hogg for 63 off 39 balls with 2 sixes and 8 fours.

Taylor lost his wicket five runs later as Yogesh Nagar took charge in the middle order with a little support from the other end. He dispatched 16 runs in the final over with two huge sixes and a four but was gone on the fifth ball for 27 off 20 deliveries with 2 sixes and even fours as Delhi Daredevils punched 152 with four wickets remaining in 20 overs.

Pankaj Singh and Amit Singh were the successful bowlers with two wickets each as Ankeet Chavan and Brad Hogg claimed one wicket each.

Rajasthan Royals made a tremendous start with their captain Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane as the first got three fours in the initial three overs. Rahane continued his support from the other end with odd boundaries and the first fifty of the innings was scored in the 8^th over. Both batsmen kept the score board moving after that but the boundaries were hard to come and most of the score was added while running.

Rahane achieved his fifty on the third ball of the 13^th over and Dravid became the first victim when he was caught by Ajit Agarkar at long on off Irfan Pathan for 40 off 38 deliveries with 5 fours. The openers contributed 99 runs in 13.5 overs as Brad Hodge came at the crease next and the run rate was picked up by the duo.

Rajasthan Royals required 36 runs from 24 balls and the target was reduced to just 15 runs in the last 12 balls by the batsmen. Morne Morkel bowled an excellent 19^th over in which he gave away just three runs and claimed the wicket of Hodge on the last ball for 22.

The equation came to 12 off last 6 balls when Owais Shah came in the centre as Ajinkya Rahane clinched 10 runs on the first five balls of the over off Umesh Yadav. The last ball was missed out with the bat by Rahane and the batsmen attempted for a bye but Shah was unluckily run out as the breathtaking match was lost by mere one run and the valiant efforts of Rahane were destroyed with the result of the match.

Points scored by both teams after the end of the 39^th match of the IPL 2012:

Delhi Daredevils    – 14 from 9 games at a net run rate of +0.902.

Rajasthan Royals    – 8 from 9 games at a net run rate of +0.163.