Delhi: It wasn’t a happy homecoming for Delhi Daredevils as they failed to chase 144 and Kings XI Punjab registered a 4-run win in a thrilling tie at the Feroz Shah Kotla yesterday. Going in with as many as five changes, Delhi fielded an almost new team but failed to register a victory.
India’s World Cup winning U-19 captain Prithvi Shaw made his debut and looked good with the bat scoring quick-fire 22 off just 10 balls to provide a fast start in the chase. But after he departed, Delhi lost Gautam Gambhir (4) and Glen Maxwell (12) rather quickly, reducing themselves to 48/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Spinner Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman accounted for Rishabh Pant with a beautiful googly, which Pant failed to read.
Daniel Christian was then run out for 6 as Delhi were reduced to 76/5.
Rahul Tewatia and Shreyas Iyer put on a 47-run stand to get the hosts back into the game but then Tye accounted for Tewatia – who scored 24. Sran, who had been expensive all night, conceded just 4 runs from the 19th over, leaving Mujeeb to defend 17 off the final one.
Iyer managed to hit a six and find a boundary but holed out to long off in the end. But he was the only one in the Delhi batting who showed some fight and scored 57.
Earlier, Liam Plunkett starred with the ball on his IPL debut as he picked 3/15 to restrict Kings XI Punjab to a small total. Trent Boult and Avesh Khan played good supporting roles, picking 2/21 and 2/36 respectively.
Kings XI had left out Chris Gayle and the opening pair of Aaron Finch and KL Rahul failed to get going for them.
Finch’s poor form continued as he was dismissed for 2. Rahul scored 23, Karun Nair and Mayank Agarwal played solid hands, scoring 21 and 34 respectively.
David Miller — who was dropped twice — scored 26 off just 19 balls to provided some sort of respectability to the total.
The loss leaves Delhi firmly rooted to the bottom of the table and they would require some sort of a miracle to progress to the next round.
Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab now have five wins out of six games and are at the top of the table.
Ankit Rajpoot was chosen as the ‘Player of the Match.’
Scores
Kings XI Punjab: 143 for 8 in 20 overs (Karun Nair 34, David Miller 26, Lokesh Rahul 23, Mayank Agarwal 21, Liam Plunkett 3 for 17, Trent Boult 2 for 21, Avesh Khan 2 for 36) bt Delhi Daredevils: 139 for 8 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 57, Prithvi Shaw 22, Rahul Tewatia 24, Ankit Rajpoot 2 for 23, Andrew Tye 2 for 25, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2 for 25).
This post was published on April 24, 2018 5:47 pm