Short Scores: Delhi Capitals (Shikhar Dhawan 92, Prithvi Shaw 32; Jhye Richardson 2/41) Punjab Kings 195/4 (Mayank Agarwal 69, KL Rahul 61; Lukman Meriwala 1/32) by 6 wickets
(IPL) Delhi Capitals (DC) bounced back with a win, beating the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Match 11 of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.
Shikhar Dhawan’s magnificent 92 (49) at the top helped DC edge past PBKS as they chased the 196 target in a running race at Wankhede.
Returning, the DC openers got the desired start, with Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw grabbing the new ball and adding 21 runs in the first two overs.
Shaw took charge of the attack as he murdered Mohammad Shami for game six too long in the second over. The DC openers then hit a couple of four off Jalaj Saxena, who came in to bowl the third over.
DC was going on over 10 runs at the start and Shaw followed Jhye Richardson’s length deliveries as he flicked the ruler towards the leg side for four and then signed long-term for a maximum.
Then it was time for Dhawan to showcase his range of shots by hitting Shami for three fours in a game over. PBKS managed to get rid of the dangerous Shaw and the short ball did the trick for Arshdeep Singh as the right-handed player edged one to Gayle on the square leg.
Steve Smith joined Dhawan in the middle and they both worked the ball around and played a couple of quiet bouts, with Deepak Hooda and Saxena bowling from each end.
Dhawan then broke the shackles and hit two fours in a row off Hooda before marking his half-century. In the 10th over, he launched a max off Richardson as DC moved to 99/1 at the halfway stage of the hunt.
Riley Meredith’s short ball did the trick for PBKS, as it sacked Steve Smith at nine.
Dhawan carried his rhythm and accelerated by crushing Shami over long for six and then creaming three consecutive fours off Meredith in the 14th over, helping DC score 18 runs in that over.
Rishabh Pant joined the party and smashed his first six of the game before Richardson ended Dhawan’s good beat of 92 after a DC batsman played a proverbial blow to a crashed delivery.
DC came close to target but the job was not done yet as they needed 36 off the last four overs.
Shami bowled a long 17th over that included a no-ball front ball and then a delivery that exceeded waist height.
Stoinis made full use of the free hits, striking out two fours and six to grab 20 off the over.
However, Richardson scalded his second wicket in the form of the DC Pant skipper, who mishandled the shot that went straight to Hooda in the long run, which caught a juggling catch.
Lalit Yadav, who walked out to bat after Pant’s fall, supported Stonis with two boundaries after the latter finished the run-in run with a boundary and DC chasing a total of 195.
Earlier, PBKS, which was put into bat first, got off to a great start after Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul took on first baseman Lukman Meriwala in the second over and scored 20 off the left arm controller, breaking three boundary and six, courtesy of a free hit that pushed PBKS openers to accelerate early.
Mayank then creamed successive boundaries off Chris Woakes and backed up his shots with solid timing.
The 50-run stand was in store for the opening wicket and the Mayank-Rahul duo hit the boundaries in plenty on a wicket-kick, scoring at nearly 10 runs per over at the end of the powerplay.
Regardless of the surface, PBKS batting went even easier due to the number of easy scoring opportunities offered by the DC bowlers, right from the start.
R Ashwin and Lalit Yadav could not make a difference in the middle poles and with the foundation laid for the Punjab Kings, they were a massive total.
Mayank brought his fifty with four with an edge over the `keeper off Avesh Khan, who bowled his first inning of the innings and DC in 94/0 at the 10-over mark.
Mayank and Rahul were dealing in boundaries at the Wankhede as the 100 partnership was in the pipeline for the opening wicket as well for PBKS.
The 11th over of the innings saw Mayank and Rahul Kagiso Rabada hammer for three sixes in a game over with three quality strokes that cleared the ropes easily thanks to Rabada’s speed and the DC controller was under the pump.
Avesh Khan at the other end, bowled tight pieces and if Shaw had held a sharp grip, he would have dismissed KL Rahul.
Meriwala came back to bowl the 13th over of the innings and provide the groundbreaking success as Mayank cut a straight catch to Dhawan at deep point and reached for 69 (36).
KL Rahul, at the other end, beat half a century and continued his brilliant batting, hitting Avesh Khan for a boundary and six in the 15th over. However, the right wing reached for 61 in the next game as Rabada gave DC their second wicket.
Hooda, walked in next and crushed the first ball aimed at his ribs, for maximum.
In the end, Woakes, who bowled the 17th over, overcame and paid the full price for it as Gayle sliced the loose hit over the ropes. However, off the next delivery, the West Indian left-hander could not connect the slower ball and put a simple catch on the cover.
Hooda continued his explosive shots against Avesh Khan but DC got another breakthrough in Nicholas Pooran’s wicket.
He went over the last of the innings, bowled by Woakes, for 16 runs, courtesy of Shahrukh Khan, who played a nice gameplay with two fours and a six as the Punjab Kings posted 195/4 on board.