Bloemfontein, May 17: Delhi Daredevils’ much vaunted opening combination failed yet again, but the prolific South African batsman AB de Villiers more then made up for it smashing an unbeaten 55-ball 79 to set up Delhi Daredevils 14-run win over Rajasthan Royals in their IPL match here on Sunday.

The Protean stitched an 87-run alliance with Tillakaratne Dilshan (33, 41 balls) for the third wicket as Delhi posted 150/3 in 20 overs. In reply, the Shane Warne-led side were restricted to 136/9.

The Royals batsman were on the backfoot from the word go with the fast-bowling combine of Dirk Nannes and Ashish Nehra keeping a tight leash on the scoring. Nannes sent back danger man Graeme Smith in the second over, while Nehra removed Rob Quiney three balls later to tilt the game towards Delhi.

Johan Botha and Ravi Jadeja did the repair work scoring 37 and 24 respectively, but the much-needed onslaught was missing towards the end. With Yusuf Pathan (1) skying the ball into the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik in the 14th over, the Daredevils had all but sealed the win. Munaf Patel (23, 10b) slammed three fours off Nannes in the last over, but his effort was too little, too late.

With Delhi already in the semifinals, the win wasn’t of much consequence for them. For Royals though, things look decidedly bleak. Now, besides winning the next game, they have to rely on the improbability of permutations to seal a semis berth.

Earlier, de Villiers scored more than 50 per cent of the Delhi’s total, setting up the side’s win. Munaf Patel got Royals to a near-perfect start, removing openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in his first two overs. With the score reading 15/2 in 3 overs, de Villiers and Dilshan quickly settled down, chosing to bide their time instead of going for expansive shots.

Later on, de Villiers along with Dinesh Karthik shifted gears dramatically to push the score to a healthy 150.

Scores: Delhi Daredevils 150/3 (Ab de Villiers 79 not out, T. Dilshan 33, D. Karthik 23 not out, M. Patel 2/39) bt Rajasthan Royals 136/9 (J. Botha 37, R. Jadeja 24, A. Nehra 1/8, D. Nannes 1/33, A. Salvi 2/19, A. Mishra 3/33)