Kevin Pitersen hit his madien century in the Twenty20 format

The explosive England batsman slammed an unbeaten 103 off just 64 balls with the help of nine monster sixes and six boundaries to take Delhi beyond the 158-run target with five balls to spare.

With his whirlwind vigil Pietersen recorded his maiden ton and highest score in the Twenty20 format.

“It is amazing, a special feeling to score a century in T20 cricket. This is my first in this format, so it has to be my favourite,” Pietersen said after match. “It is good to get a century in T20 cricket. It was a good wicket to bat on and also good for the pacers who bent their back, not much for the spinners.

This was Delhi’s fourth win from five games while Deccan suffered their fourth defeat in a row.

Delhi lost Naman Ojha (1), Virender Sehwag (7) and Mahela Jayawardene (6) cheaply in chase before Pietersen combined with Ross Taylor (13) for a 42-run stand to steady Delhi.

The visitors removed Taylor and Irfan Pathan (5) in the quick-succession to peg the hosts back but Pietersen’s brisk unbeaten 48 run partnership with Yogesh Nagar (23 off 15) for sixth wicket ensured Delhi’s win.

Earlier, Parthiv Patel (45 off 27) and Shikhar Dhawan (44 off 29) made useful contributions to help Deccan manage a fighting total of 157-8 after they elected to bat.

Patel and Dhawan stitched up 71 runs for the second wicket in seven overs to put the visitors back on track after the early loss of skipper Kumar Sangakkara.

But spinner Shahbaz Nadeem dismissed the pair in the successive overs to trigger a comprehensive spell of batting collapse, during which Deccan lost six wickets for 50 runs.

Delhi Daredevils VS Deccan Chargers Scorecard