Delhi appear to have fired their cheerleaders, or at least caved in to pressure from conservative politicians, but it doesn’t seem to have done them much harm. The only divine vengeance visited upon the team was a fire in the media center that prevented any live video until about half an hour into the game. That was a shame, because both Sehwag and Gambhir were in fine form. At one point it looked like Delhi were set for 250, but the Royal Challengers worked hard to peg them back to only 191. That’s an achievable target against many teams, but not one whose bowling lineup includes Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori. Kallis and Dravid batted well, but neither of them can score at the pace necessary to make a big score in Twenty20. Boucher had a quick flurry at the end, but I don’t think he would have done so well had Sehwag not nobly volunteered to bowl the last over, safe in the knowledge that he could leak 29 runs and still win. That’s what you call the captain taking one for the team.

By the way, the games are on Setanta Sports in the UK. The package is £10/month, and for that you also get a lot of soccer, Celtic League Rugby, Aussie Rules football, and NHL ice hockey (although the less said about the latter right now the better). Plus a huge amount of horse racing (Setanta are Irish, after all), a lot of golf, and a pile of soccer team channels. Not a bad deal. And it takes less time to sign up than it takes for the satellite signal to synchronize with your box. Very efficient. The Irish girl I chatted with told me that they are getting a lot of new subscriptions from people wanting to watch the IPL cricket.