File photo of Delhi capitals
Delhi Capitals showed remarkable resilience in their camp to overcome a COVID crisis as they thrashed Punjab Kings by nine wickets in the Indian Premier League here on Wednesday.
Delhi, which had a chaotic build-up to the game, reported a sixth COVID positive case on the morning of the game, which displayed a clinical bowling performance to bowl out Punjab Kings for a down-scoring of 115. .
On a track where the delivery stalled a bit, even Lalit Yadav went unstoppable, let go of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav,
Delhi seemed in real hurry to end the game Prithvi Shaw (41 off 20) and David Warner (60 not out in 30 balls) got them off to a good start.
Their partnership of 83 runs off 39 balls took Delhi to victory in 10.3 overs, giving a big boost to their net run rate. The match, which was shifted from Pune to the Brabourne Stadium, was allowed to go ahead after Delhi keeper-batsman Tim Seifert tested positive on Wednesday morning, barely an hour before the start of the game.
Shaw and Warner looked in devastating touch and demolished Punjab’s bowling attack in all corners of the field. However, the Punjab bowlers couldn’t be blamed in the night as the batsmen put the team on a good pitch. With Delhi running for 81 for no loss in the powerplay, the game was as good as the over.
This was Delhi’s third win in six matches while Punjab suffered their fourth loss in seven matches.
Earlier, the Delhi spin trio of Lalit (2/11), Kuldeep (2/24) and Axar (2/10) did the most damage. Punjab was trailing 35/2 after the loss of the openers Mayank Agarwal (24) and Shikhar Dhawan (9) early.
Mayank, who was forced to recover from a toe injury that forced him to miss the previous game, started with a cut for a boundary. After this, he scored 14 runs in the third over off Shardul Thakur by hitting three fours. But off-spinner Lalit cheaply dismissed Dhawan (9), dismissing Rishabh Pant after the left-hander attempted to paddle.
Punjab were soon reduced to 46/3 as Axar removed Liam Livingstone (2) in his first over, which was stumped by Pant. Livingstone comes under the wicket to go to the letter, but the left-arm spinner flicks the ball away from him to get Pant into action.
Wickets falling for Punjab Jonny Bairstow (9) Gifted Mustafizur a sitter at fine leg in the seventh over. Khaleel Ahmed (2/21). Jitesh Sharma (32), who hit five fours, and Shah Rukh Khan (12) tried to revive the innings but could only add 31 runs before Axar trapped the former in front of the wickets as Punjab posted 85. But lost half of his team.
From 85/5, it went to 92/8 as Punjab lost wickets in quick succession with chinaman Kuldeep Castling Kagiso Rabada (2) and Nathan Ellis (0) in the 14th over. Khaleel took his second wicket in the next over, dismissing Shah Rukh at cross-seam slowness, while Rahul Chahar (12) became Lalit’s second wicket. Fast bowlers Khaleel and Mustafizur shared three wickets and supported the spinners.