On Monday night, Delhi Daredevils (DD) failed to change their fate while playing their first home game in this season (Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi). They suffered another defeat in this season in the low scoring match against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir elected to field first after winning the toss. While in-form KXIP opening batsman Chris Gayle was absent in this game, KXIP only managed to score 143/8 in 20 overs. However, DD failed to reach the low target as they were restricted for 139/8 in 20 overs as KXIP won their fourth consecutive match in this season by 4 runs.
Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for DD’s defeat in this match.
Poor fielding (Miller got two chances)
The host side showed poor and lazy fielding on Monday night. Apart from some fielding misses, KXIP batsman David Miller got two early chances, one of those was easier which was missed by young Prithvi Shaw.
As a result, Miller added 26 runs on the scoreboard which proved very costly in this low-scoring thrilling contest.
Most of DD batsmen failed to take their responsibilities
Apart from Shreyas Iyer, most of other DD batsmen failed to take enough responsibilities in this game. While young opener Prithvi Shaw began the innings with blistering 22-run knock off just 10 balls, other batsmen failed to use that.
Apart from Shreyas Iyer, other top-order batsmen failed to make any positive mark. The no.4 right-handed batsman fought hard till the end of the innings but failed to get enough support other than Rahul Tewatia (24 runs).
Iyer scored 57 runs off 45 balls with 5 fours and only six before getting out in the final delivery where his team needed to score 5 more runs for victory.
The 19th over (DD’s innings)
The 19th over of DD’s innings was the turning points of the game. At the end of the 18th over, DD was the favourite for victory as they needed 21 runs in last 12 balls with 4 wickets in hands and Shreyas Iyer was well set.
KXIP’s left-arm pacer Barinder Sran had to bowl in that 19th over who was expensive in the earlier spells of the match as his bowling figure was 3-0-41-0 before that over.
He brilliantly prevented Iyer to make any big hit in that crucial over as well as he dismissed Liam Plunket for a golden duck. In that over, Sran made a superb comeback and conceded only four singles with achieving one wicket.
After that over, DD needed 17 runs for victory in the last over which meant too much for them.
