After being on the road for almost three weeks, Delhi Daredevils finally had a home game against visitors Kings XI Punjab.
It was Punjab which trumped the reds this time by a margin of four runs and continues to ascertain their dominance in the tournament with their fourth consecutive win in a row.
With this loss, Delhi have a steep task to reach the next stage of the tournament.
Here’s a look at the five game-changing moments. Liam Plunkett’s impressive debut
With the injury to Jason Roy, the ideal replacement of the Englishman would have been Colin Munro. However, looking at the bowling woes, Ponting decided to have a look at English international, Liam Plunkett.
The move paid instant dividends, as he was responsible for stemming the flow of runs of the inform KXIP batting unit with his three wickets.
Plunkett only conceded 17 runs in his full quota of overs at an exceptional economy of 4.25. Thereby, putting an end to Delhi Daredevils bowling woes.
All Karnataka batsmen in the KXIP camp went to lose their wickets to Plunkett.
Kings XI batting struggles
The pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla, reputed for providing batsmen’s paradise, went on to surprise with assistance to bowlers.
KXIP’s batsmen seemed to struggle on the surface at Kotla, helping Delhi Daredevils bowlers Boult, Avesh Khan and Dan Christian restrict the visitors to 143 for the loss of eight wickets.
Karun Nair and David Miller were the only ones to middle the ball once the ball went old.
Two drop catches off Miller
Delhi could have restricted Kings XI Punjab to a score of around 120 had they not given a couple of lives to David Miller.
The South African was first given life by Glenn Maxwell who dropped a simple according to his high standards.
Subsequently, Miller was given yet another life by Prithvi Shaw at the Point which he grassed even after three attempts. The Protean ended up adding 26 valuable runs in the backend.
The flurry of wickets with the new ball
After a decent start from Prithvi Shaw who scored a 10-ball 22, Gautam Gambhir’s side lost four wickets in a narrow span.
From 41-1, Delhi Daredevils were reduced to 61-4 on a difficult pitch for the strokeplay. DD threatened to make a meal out of the moderate chase with quick wickets, paving the way for a KXIP comeback.
Shreyas Iyer’s Valiant knock
Shreyas Iyer stood like a rock with wickets falling at the other end. Carrying on from where he left off in Bengaluru, with yet another sparkling knock of 57 off 45 deliveries.
With a lot of support from Rahul Tewatia at the backend, Iyer almost helped his team chase down the total.
Unfortunately, Delhi Daredevils fell short of their second win in the tournament by just four runs in the end.