During the 22nd match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Delhi, Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by 4 runs in a tight contest.
After Gautam Gambhir put Kings XI Punjab in to bat, the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals, which didn’t help their case at all. In their allotted quota of 20 overs, Kings XI Punjab had scored an underwhelming 143-8. The home team too didn’t fare well as they could only score 139-8 in 20 overs in a match which was dominated by the bowlers.
Now, we will look at the hits and flops players in this match.
Hits
Liam Plunkett (DD) – Plunkett, who bowled first change in the fifth over, made early inroads after taking the wicket of Lokesh Rahul (23) on his third ball. Plunkett bowled his second over from the other end, the eight of the innings. He dismissed another Karnataka batsman on the third ball of his over as Mayank Agarwal (21) played a terrible shot across the line. Bowling his last over, the penultimate of the innings, Plunkett gave away just six runs as he completed match figures of 4-0-17-3.
Ankit Rajpoot (KXIP) – When the batting side scores 143-8 in 20 overs, it automatically becomes the primary job of the new-ball bowler to pick up wickets in his first spell. For Kings XI Punjab, Ankit Rajpoot was that new ball who counted for two dismissals in his first spell. Adjourned as the ‘Man of the Match’, he ended up with bowling figures of 4-0-17-2.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman (KXIP) – Apart from picking up the wicket of Rishabh Pant at a point in the match which perhaps changed the course of the game, what Rahman did the best was defend 17 runs in the last over of the match against Shreyas Iyer. He picked up match figures of 4-0-25-2.
Flop
Aaron Finch (KXIP) – There is no hiding to the fact that the 31-year old Australian opener has failed to find his touch in the tournament so far. His poor run with the bat continued in this match as well. Promoted to open the batting with Lokesh Rahul, Finch ended up scoring 2 (4).
Gautam Gambhir (DD) – A 144-run chase was the ideal situation for Gambhir to find his form. The required run rate would have given him a fair opportunity to be back against the runs. But he never looked comfortable to cash-in on the chance. His dismal innings of 4 (13) was ended by Andre Tye in the sixth over today.
Glenn Maxwell (DD) – Even a promotion in the batting order did not change the fortune of Glenn Maxwell in the tournament. Sent in to bat at No. 3 tonight, Maxwell looked out of sorts as he ended up scoring 12 (10) with the help of one four and one six. His blitz, even for a limited time, could have changed the game for Delhi in a low-scoring match but that never happened.
