In a hope to rewrite history, Kings XI Punjab batsmen stepped on the field to chase highest ever total in the history of IPL at this Feroz Shah Kotla but in the end, failed, as they fell short by a margin of 51 runs.
The main cause for defeat was the poor start, as they suffered three early jitters in form of Manan Vohra, Wriddhiman Saha and Hashim Amla. All the three batsmen were forced to remove their cricketing gears within first five overs of the game. Shahbaz Nadeem was the bowler to get two out of three wickets, to help Delhi gain an upper hand right from the outset.
The wickets continued to fall and Delhi bowlers never gave a chance to the visitors to make any comeback. For those who had hopes of a Maxwell magic, they were dealt a major blow, as leggie Amit Mishra removed Punjab skipper without letting him add even a run to his stat.
The wickets continued to fall and in the end, Punjab found themselves short by a margin of 51 runs. Almost each and every bowler contributed to Delhi’s win.
Earlier in the evening, the game kicked off with the last opening ceremony of this year’s IPL.
There was a big surprise at the top of the order, as excited by Sanju Samson’s success in the previous game, the team management decided to send him to open the innings despite the fact that they had Shreyas Iyer in the side, who is a regular opener.
The gamble did pay off if we look at the runs churned out by the first pair wicket but on a personal note, Sanju failed as he was dismissed on a score of 19 caught by Eoin Morgan.
Karun Nair, the succeeding batsman continue his torrid form in the tournament as he could not open his account.
Finally, Shreyas Iyer arrived at the strike sharing 41 runs with Sam Billings before returning back to the dressing room. With wickets of Sam Billings and Rishabh Pant soon fell after, it looked like Delhi might not be able to put up a good score but Corey Anderson took up the charge and the all-rounder scored 39 runs to spring the run-rate up in the later part of the innings and help team score 188 runs.
The small cameos of Chirs Morris and Pat Cummins were worth mentioning, as both the players batted at a strike-rate of 200.00, scoring 16 and 12*, respectively.
It was a win to remember for Delhi, as it was on the same day last year when Delhi opened its winning account in 2016. Daredevils will look to cash upon the home advantage in the game against KKR as well, when they the table toppers on April 17.
Brief Score: Delhi Daredevils 188/6 (Sam Billings 55, Corey Anderson 39*; Varun Aaron 2-45) defeat Kings XI Punjab (Axar Patel 44, David Miller 24; Chris Morris 3-23) by 51 runs at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi,