Mumbai Indians spinner Harbhajan Singh has lavished praise on his former teammate and Delhi Daredevils skipper Zaheer Khan for the latter’s brilliant bowling performance in the 7-run win over Rising Pune Supergiant on Friday (May 12).
Zaheer Khan’s decision to bat first at the Feroz Shah Kotla looked a bit absurd and the Supergiant were looking set to prove his decision wrong by dismissing Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer with only 9 runs on the board. But the capital-based outfit was bailed out of the trouble courtesy of the 74-run stand between Rishabh Pant and Karun Nair.
But once the partnership was broken, the Supergiant regained control. The new batsman Marlon Samuels could make only three runs in his first 10 balls. He fell top-edging to MS Dhoni after scoring 27 while Corey Anderson was dismissed for only 3. But Nair held firm from one and end and scored 64 off 45 balls to steer his side to a respectable 168 for 8.
The target looked below par against the high-flying Supergiant and moreover the way the ground had witnessed some high-scoring games this season, the Daredevils needed a brilliant start to have any chance of winning the game. And who better than Zaheer Khan to shoulder the responsibility. The 38-year old veteran pacer dismissed Ajinkya Rahane on the very first ball of the innings with a brilliant inswinger. 36 runs in the next four overs then swung the pendulum in Supergiant’s side before Zaheer Khan struck once again to dismiss the dangerous Rahul Tripathi. Zaheer finished the match with impressive figures of 2 for 25 from his quota of 4 overs.
A 38-run stand between Steve Smith and Manoj Tiwary then steadied the ship before the skipper was Shahbaz Nadeem. It was a big blow for the Supergiant but they were looking set to chase down the target when Ben Stokes and Tiwary shared a 51-run partnership. However, the game turned on its head once Stokes mistimed a full toss from Mohammed Shami straight to the long-off fielder. MS Dhoni and Dan Christian were dismissed in quick succession and when the 19th over ended, the Steve Smith-led side needed 25 runs to seal their playoff spot.
Tiwary made the possible start to the over, hitting two sixes off the first two balls which was followed by a wide. However, he could not score on the next four deliveries as the visitors were restricted to 161 for 7.
After the game ended, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh took to Twitter to congratulate the Daredevils and praise the top performers of the match.
“Congrats @DelhiDaredevils vs @RPSupergiants @karun126 batting and @ImZaheer bowling was superb for DD.. @tiwarymanoj well batted ?,” the off-spinner tweeted.
Congrats @DelhiDaredevils vs @RPSupergiants @karun126 batting and @ImZaheer bowling was superb for DD.. @tiwarymanoj well batted ?
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 12, 2017