KXIP top IPL table with 4-run win

NEW DELHI: A fresh track at Feroz Shah Kotla, for Delhi Daredevils’ first home game of the season, had plenty to offer for the pacers and appeared one of the quickest wickets so far in IPL 2018.

Using that to their advantage Daredevils managed to restrict Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) to 143 for 8, thanks to the efforts of Liam Plunkett and Avesh Khan. However, it was a combination of pace and spin that did the trick for Kings XI Punjab as they overcame a Shreyas Iyer half-century to top the table with a four-run win.

It was a measured approach from Iyer, who had to help DD consolidate after early wickets. Taking a risk against the spinners in the middle overs might have turned out to be counter-productive had he fallen at that stage. He decided to wait it out and take the game close. While Rahul Tewatia managed to score a six and a four off Barinder Sran in the 17th over, bringing down the equation to 28 off 18, Iyer still delayed teeing off. He didn’t take a risk against Andrew Tye, who bowled the 18th over and gave away only seven, and picked up the wicket of Tewatia. When Sran bowled an excellent penultimate over, conceding only four, it was down to Iyer vs Mujeeb Ur Rahman. The DD batsman managed to score a six off the second delivery and a four off the fifth. But with five required off the final delivery, he failed to clear long off and was left crestfallen as Kings XI managed to sneak through. While there may be some arguments that Iyer could have been slightly aggressive earlier, his approach did nearly get the team over the line.

No, the KXIP spinners didn’t allow that. Unlike the Rishabh Pant-Shreyas Iyer partnership that helped DD make good progress after a slow start against RCB, they weren’t able to do that in this game as KXIP did not let the momentum slip. Mujeeb Ur Rahman ensured there wasn’t going to be another special knock from Rishabh Pant, foxing him with a carrom ball while Daniel Christian was run out attempting a quick second. The dismissals were the outcome of the spinners applying the stranglehold on the scoring. Ashwin entered the attack in the over after the powerplay and Mujeeb came on soon after. Between them, they bowled five overs, conceded only 20 runs and restricted the boundary scoring - only one four was scored in those five overs - which added to the pressure on DD. Ashwin, despite not picking up any wicket, gave away only 19 runs off his four overs.

Not really. Yuvraj Singh endured another struggle before getting out to Avesh. Karun Nair came up with a hard-working innings but he couldn’t finish it off well towards the end of the innings. David Miller too was bogged down for most parts, although his 19-ball 26 did help KXIP finish with 140 plus. The famed batting order of Kings XI Punjab didn’t quite meet the expectations. Sustained aggression has been the mantra advocated by the team management - with Virender Sehwag at the helm - but it didn’t work out in this game and they could only manage 75 in their last 10 overs, with only 27 coming in the final four.

Brief scores: Kings XI Punjab 143/8 in 20 overs (Karun Nair 34, David Miller 26, Liam Plunkett 3-17) beat Delhi Daredevils 139/8 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 57, Rahul Tewatia 24, Ankit Rajpoot 2-23) by 4 runs.