Despite the unbelievable heroics of Chris Morris, the Delhi Daredevils fell short by an agonizing margin of just a run against the Gujarat Lions. Morris was simply outstanding as he single-handedly injected life into the game, which seemed to be headed in the favor of Gujarat. Morris’ 32 ball knock of 82 was simply magical as he slammed 8 maximums and 4 boundaries.
Earlier, the Lions got off to a scintillating start as Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith went berserk. However, the Daredevils did well to restrict them to 172. Delhi seemed to be nowhere at one stage in the middle overs, before Morris took off to get the hosts so close.
In the post-match presentation, Daredevils skipper Zaheer Khan said that he was happy with his team’s performance and the Daredevils would definitely improve in the matches to follow. “Lots of positives for us. Pulled it through when the going was tough. Spinners and Morris got us back in the game – with the bat and the ball. JP Duminy batted well too. It was anybody’s game. We thought Morris would finish it. What is good is that despite a slow start, we managed to get this close. I am very happy with the performance, especially the way guys batted,” said Zaheer.
“We created opportunities. Certain things didn’t go our way. Little things can change the game – that Morris over for example and then his two overs with the bat. Still a long way to go in the tournament for us, just five games at the moment,” Zaheer added.
Man of the match Chris Morris admitted that despite doing well, he was disappointed that the Daredevils couldn’t win. “Not often that losing team gets the Man of the Match. Very happy but upset that we couldn’t get there. Personally happy but like I say, can’t help. Happy with my performance. Quite lucky tonight I was. One of those nights where yorkers came out well and the runs came off the middle of the bat,” said Morris.