Adam Gilchrist left Supersport Park in Pretoria a happy man after guiding his Deccan Chargers side into the Indian Premier League final with a six-wicket victory over the Delhi Daredevils.

The Australian blasted the fastest half-century in the tournament’s brief history when he reached the mark off only 17 balls, before going on to make 85 as his side coasted past the victory target of 154 with more than two overs to spare.

It was a merciless display from the veteran wicketkeeper and he was delighted all the hard work put in by last year’s bottom-placed side had paid off.

"It was a great thrill for us to come into the tournament as underdogs and we’ve managed to make our way to the final," he said.

"We’ve got that to think about but, just for the moment, we’ll enjoy this result. It’s not yet over though and we’ve got one more big push on Sunday.

"All I’ve asked my players to do right through the tournament is to make whatever they’re doing at that specific time the most important thing in their life for that moment. For tonight, that was the most important thing, to achieve this result."

Gilchrist described his innings as the best of his Twenty20 career and revealed the plan from the start was to attack.

He added: "I would say this is probably my best knock in Twenty20 cricket. I scored a hundred against Mumbai last year but that was not in a semi-final.

"I wanted to be positive. We talked about it being a semi-final and getting runs on the board and building pressure.

"But we just wanted to put the pressure back on them by putting pressure on their bowlers, who’ve been so successful, and we managed to do that."

Gilchrist’s innings had come after Tillakaratne Dilshan made 65 to help rescue Delhi from losing two wickets without scoring a run thanks to Ryan Harris, who finished with three for 27.

Skipper Virender Sehwag was predictably disappointed but felt there was nothing any captain could do against a player in such form.

"I think it’s part of the game, nobody was expecting it," he said.

"Gilchrist played extremely well and just finished the game in the first seven overs. So we couldn’t do anything.

"I tried everything, I rotated the bowlers and even myself, I bowled in the first six overs - the powerplay overs - but the way he was going, it was very hard to stop him.

"The way we started, losing those two wickets early on, I thought the score we had was competitive. It allowed us to fight because very few times we saw someone in this tournament chase down a score of 150-160.