Two days after scoring 427 runs and nearly chasing down RR’s 217 at Brabourne Stadium, Delhi Capitals limped to 115, their lowest total of the season, on a sticky pitch to lose their fourth game of the season.
The slower bowlers of the Delhi Capitals had a field day, and Rishabh Pant’s team did well to keep their focus on the field to pick up two crucial points (and a major NRR push) despite the extremely worrisome covid issues behind the scenes.
Bowlers in the Row
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Lalit Yadav each took two wickets and gave up 45 runs in their 10 overs.
Punjab Kings’ biggest threat was Axar, who had made it a Practise of flying out of the blocks in the Power Play.
DC realised the ball was stalling on the pitch in Lalit Yadav’s fourth over that run-making against the spinners would be difficult.
Lalit and Khaleel Ahmed had already dismissed openers Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan when Axar came on to bowl.
However, Pant’s left-arm spinner took out the in-form Liam Livingstone, who appeared to be in command of the innings by giving the spinner the charge, but was undone by Pant’s crisp turn and quick stumping.
With 13 dot balls, Axar concluded with figures of 2 for 10 in 4 overs.Kuldeep concluded with stats of 2 for 24, including the wickets of Kagiso Rabada and Nathan Ellis, effectively ending PBKS’ aspirations of a late charge towards a manageable total.
Kuldeep now has 13 wickets for the season, just four behind RR’s Yuzvendra Chahal.
Lalit only bowled two overs but wreaked havoc in both, finishing with 2 for 11.
The Pacers
The spinners changed the narrative with Shardul Thakur’s second over of the match, which included three boundaries.
Khaleel Ahmed bowled only two overs for 20 runs, but he was efficient, dismissing another PBKS threat in Jonny Bairstow and removing Shahrukh Khan.
Before the spinners took over, Mustafizur Rahman was crucial in stopping Mayank Agarwal in his tracks after the PBKS captain got off to a fast start with a couple of boundaries.
PBKS spritless batting
I was uncharacteristically drowsy. This was a collective awful day for a side with one of the most exciting top orders in the game, as they couldn’t cope with the conditions.
The attempt to rebuild after Bairstow’s dismissal in the seventh over was cautious, as DC’s spinners controlled the middle overs. Shahrukh and Jitesh Sharma took PBKS from 54 for 4 in the seventh over to 85 for 4 in 12 overs, but they crumbled from there.
There were no boundaries between the 10th and 17th overs, with only 15 fours and a single six (off #9 Rahul Chahar’s willow) in the innings.
The second Innings
There are none at all. Prithvi Shaw and David Warner added insult to injury by opening the innings with a 14-run over against Vaibhav Arora and not skipping a beat even against Kagiso Rabada.
They raced to 75 for 0 in 5 overs, denying Mayank Agarwal the opportunity to bring his spinners into the game and give some excitement to the chase.
Prithvi Shaw was bowled by Rahul Chahar in the sixth over, but DC had already scored 83 runs. Warner stayed on to complete the chase, scoring an unbeaten 60 off 30 balls, his 53rd IPL fifty and third in a row.
Brabourne stadium
The Brabourne wicket’s transformation on Wednesday night might be attributed to one of the game’s magnificent uncertainties, but the intrigue factor in the wicket may compel the leaders to reconsider their chase plans.
The surface was clearly favouring the spinners from the start, and Pant, despite his lack of experience as a skipper, read the circumstances well and deployed his spinners.
Lalit Yadav (2 overs), Axar Patel (four overs), and Kuldeep Yadav (four overs each) bowled half of the overs and shared six wickets between them.
Author By: Soumyajit dutta
Published By: Sachin Sonawane
