CENTURION, May 21: In a contest of no consequence, Delhi Daredevils trounced Mumbai Indians by four wickets and with 15 balls to spare in their final league game of IPL-2 here on Thursday afternoon.

It was disheartening to see the game not being contested fiercely, though the players cannot be blamed. A long drawn tournament and with only pride to play for, one could sense the reason for a below par show. The competitiveness in a Ranji Trophy game between the same two sides is usually higher. Sadly the match was reduced to a six hitting competition.

In pursuit of 166, Delhi were on a roll from the start. The fall of David Warner did little to alter Gautam Gambhir’s approach. Virender Sehwag batting at three smashed the ball around and the famed pair were back at what they do best.

Runs came at a ferocious speed and though Gambhir fell three short of 50 to Lasith Malinga, there was no let up from Sehwag. The bowling with the exception of Harbhajan Singh proved easy fodder.

Delhi’s talisman Tillakaratne Dilshan added two huge sixes to his swelling tally of maximums, all the practice against the sling of Malinga in the nets paying dividends. The usual Delhi collapse was triggered by Dilshan went he swung at Harbhajan without getting to the pitch of the ball.

Sehwag and AB de Villiers followed quickly. Harbhajan with four wickets — he was on a hat-trick twice — gave Mumbai a sniff at victory but two lusty hits from Amit Mishra settle the issue as Delhi completed their engagements with 20 points.

Earlier the crowd that had come more in anticipation of the game to follow had hardly settled down when Sachin Tendulkar unleashed a punch of the back foot and a bowlers’ back drive. The two shots would have made even the stiffest of upper lips curl in appreciation.

Before that however, first Sanath Jayasuriya trusted the length and went across only to miss and get trapped by Dirk Nannes.

Crowd favourite J.P. Duminy walked in to a deafening roar and left to a shocked silence. Sachin continued to do what he has done well for two decades-— treat the ball on merit. Mumbai found a hero in Ajinkya Rahane who batted with a new found freedom. A six off Mishra and another off Avishkar Salvi proved the youngster is not far away from decoding T20.

Tendulkar fell trying to cut a straight ball from Rajat Bhatia and bade goodbye to IPL 2009. Pinal Shah and Harbhajan used the long handle to good effect while Rahane carried on before finally losing his wicket in trying to improve the run rate.

Scores: Mumbai Indians 165/8 in 20 overs (S. Tendulkar 46, A. Rahane 56; D. Nannes 3/27) lost to Delhi Daredevils 166/6 in 17.3 overs (V. Sehwag 50, G. Gambhir 47; Harbhajan 4/17).