It was a march into the unknown for two teams which have more often than not been on the receiving end in the Indian Premier League. Two revamped sides, two new captains, and one spiced up contest, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils locked horns in Mohali and what eventually panned out as a one-sided affair, Ravichandran Ashwin’s side romped home in their home territory.
Also read: Rahul thwacks fastest IPL half-century
We look at the reasons why Delhi Daredevils had to be content with the second spot in this particular game.
Jittery start to the innings
Colin Munro and Gautam Gambhir walked out to open the innings for Delhi, but Munro lost his wicket looking to be to reverse paddle Mujeeb ur Rahman. Shreyas Iyer then walked back when the score read 54.
This pushed back Delhi as they could not take advantage of the field restrictions as Gambhir was always consolidating the innings.
Frequent loss of wickets at the back end of the innings
At one stage, the visitors were poised to breach the 180-run mark, but the frequent loss of wickets after over number 12 pushed their innings back and owing to the fact that there were always new batsmen at the crease and this allowed Punjab’s bowlers to string in tight overs at a stretch.
Tepid finish to the Delhi innings
If wickets in the middle overs were not enough, Delhi lost their way completely during the end overs and this forced them to crawl to the eventual score of 166 in their 20 overs.
They scored only 34 runs in the final few overs, and while Kings XI bowling attack was on the money, Delhi’s approach left a lot to be desired. Not only they were careless, they kept losing wickets which sucked out all the momentum from their innings and when the hammer should have been dropped, they splashed around with more prayer than any precision.
KL Rahul’s onslaught at the top
167 was just about par on the slightly sluggish surface, but then KL Rahul walked in for Punjab, faced the first ball, looked around and then grabbed hold of Delhi’s bowling attack and shred them to pieces.
He carved Trent Boult for 16 in the first over of the chase and this was the tip of the iceberg. Mohammed Shami was the next to run in with the ball and was dispatched for 11 runs. However, he reserved his best for Amit Mishra who was looted for 24 runs in his first over.
A couple of sixes and three fours in the piece and Rahul smoked the fastest IPL fifty in only 14 balls.
Inability to contain the rampage
Even when Rahul was dismissed, Delhi was not able to string many economical overs together which never put any real pressure on Punjab as the following batsmen just came in, took their time or went for the strokes according to their own liking.
Also read: Match 2 (KXIP vs DD) – Gautam Gambhir stands tall for misfiring Delhi
Another Karnataka batsman, Karun Nair looked in sublime touch and his half-century ensured that there were not late order stumbles as KXIP eventually romped home with six wickets to spare.
Back to the drawing board for Delhi Daredevils and Gautam Gambhir and Ricky Ponting have a lot to ponder on, especially with their batting order and approach during their batting effort.
