The Kings XI Punjab thrashed Delhi Daredevils at IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Sunday by ten wickets. It was a comprehensive performance from their bowlers, especially Sandeep Sharma with his four-wicket haul, which helped KXIP pick their fourth win of the season.
DD never really got going during the afternoon game in Mohali. Right from the first over of the match, where they lost the wicket of Sam Billings, they were in all sorts of trouble as they also lost the wicket of Sanju Samson in the third over of the day.
Samson had put himself into a deep hole after playing a number of dot balls. Things went from bad to worse as the bowler sent Shreyas Iyer also back in the dugout in his next over. But, one also needs to applaud the KXIP bowlers, especially Sandeep, who took the first three wickets of the match.
With Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant and Chris Morris also out in the first nine overs of the innings, DD were looking for a quality innings from New Zealander Corey Anderson, who was trying his best to take his team towards a decent total. But, the problem being, he did not have many wickets to play around with.
Everything the KXIP bowlers tocuhed turned to gold as Varun Aaron managed to pick a first-ball wicket, coming into bowl in the 15th over. With few overs remaining, they had lost seven wickets, and Kagiso Rabada was the only hope, if any, for a good total. The pacer also did not stay long enough to score, and was out for 11 runs.
DD were eventually bowled out for a paltry score of 67 runs , which was never going to be difficult for the home team.
Despite possessing a world-class attack, including Amit Mishra, Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada, DD did not have enough total on the board, which was embarrasing.
Chasing 68 runs for victory, the Kings XI Punjab openers Martin Guptill (50, 27b, 6x4, 1x6) and Hashim Amla were expected to come hard at the DD bowlers.
WIth DD only having score a paltry score, they were looking for early wickets, but that was not to be as Guptill played his natural game from the first over of the match. He took the attack to Mohammed Shami, striking two powerfull boundaries in the off side.
From there on, there was no stopping Amla and Guptill, who were dealing in boundaries. It was the New Zealander, who was in hurry to finish the game. He was finding the boundaries in will, and was depositing the ball into the stands as well.
The KXIP batsmen were playing aggressive cricket as they had their eyes on the net run rate, which could come into the equation during the latter stages of the competition.
They scored 50 runs in the first six overs, and with 18 runs required for KXIP, Guptill helped his team cross the finishing line in the 8th over of the game to pick an impressive win.
Toss: KXIP, who chose to bowl.
DD: 67 all out in 17.1 overs.
KXIP: 68/0, 7.5 overs.
Result: KXIP won by 10 wickets.
Bowling: KXIP: Sandeep Sharma 4-0-20-4;T Natarajan 2-0-7-0; Mohit Sharma 1.1-0-3-1; Axar Patel 4-0-22-2; Glenn Maxwell 4-0-12-1; Varun Aaron 2-0-3-2.
Delhi Daredevils: Mohammed Shami 2-0-19-0; Kagiso Rabada 2-0-18-0; Chris Morris 2-0-13-0; Amit Mishra 1-0-9-0; S Nadeem 0.5-0-9-0.
Fall of wickets: Delhi Daredevils: 1/1, Sam Billings (0.6 overs); 7/2, Sanju Samson (2.5 overs); 22/3, Shreyas Iyer (4.6 overs); 25/4, Karun Nair (6.1 overs); 30/5, K Nair (17.1 overs); 33/6, Chris Morris (8.4 overs), 57/7, Anderson (14.1 overs), 62/8, Rabada (15.3 overs), 67/9, Shami (16.6.1 overs), 67/10, Nadeem (17.1 overs)
