Centurion, April 28: They may be the most feared opening combination in world cricket when batting for India, but for the Delhi Daredevils, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been less than impressive.

For the third straight time since their rain-hit opener against Kings XI Punjab, the duo failed to give their IPL team anything resembling a start, and the Daredevils just could not put enough on the board against struggling champions Rajasthan Royals here on Tuesday.

Chasing 144 for only their second win in five matches, the Royals were powered home by a blistering cameo from Yusuf Pathan — who had also won the day against Kolkata Knight Riders in the "super over" finish last week.

Graeme Smith (44, 46b, 5x4) played the anchor to perfection and Pathan fed off the South Africa skipper’s solidity to bludgeon his way to a 30-ball 62 that included three boundaries and six huge sixes, besides benefiting from a dropped chance.

Amit Mishra was almost the hero on the day for the Daredevils, removing Ravinder Jadeja, Shane Warne and Paul Valathaty besides running Swapnil Asnodkar out in an economical spell but Pathan destroyed his analysis, taking 18 runs off the little leggie’s final over as the Royals eventually coasted home with nine balls to spare.

Ashish Nehra and Dirk Nannes did well enough with the new ball and in their second spells but the slower bowlers ran into a belligerent Pathan who carted Mishra and Vettori for a couple of sixes each and took another two off Nehra.

Earlier, team top-scorer AB de Villiers led the fightback for the Daredevils to see them to 143/7 with his first half-century.

Other than a 29 from New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and an unbeaten 23 from Mithun Manhas, there was precious little to talk of with the bat for Delhi.

Besides their 58-run stand in the rain-hit opening game against Kings XI Punjab, Sehwag and Gambhir have a best of 20 for the first wicket at this tournament.

Neither have been able to come to grips with the tracks and Sehwag’s 38 against Punjab remains the best score from a pair that was till recently terrorising attacks around the world.

On Tuesday they put on 20, which was still better than the 0 against the Chennai Super Kings and their 11 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Delhi’s earlier games.

Dimitri Mascarenhas (2/28) picked up both Sehwag and Gambhir in an eventful second over after Sehwag had clobbered him for two boundaries.

Scores: Delhi Daredevils 143/7 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 50, D. Vettori 29; S. Warne 2/32, D. Mascarenhas 2/28, M. Patel 2/14) lost to Rajasthan Royals 147/5 in 18.3 overs (Y. Pathan 62 n.o., G. Smith 44 n.o.; A. Mishra 3/34)