Two games in one day and both of them provided the thrill that people hoped to see. At one point, it seemed like Punjab would win. At another, Delhi was running away with the game. In the end, however, the game ended in favour of Punjab, who are making some sort of a comeback in the IPL.
This was Murali Vijay’s third game as captain and he has already won twice—which is more than David Miller could in his 7 games as captain.
Batting first, Punjab posted a good total of 181. Though, they might have felt they were short by 10 runs given how flat the deck was. Delhi started the chase well and had the game in the bag with just 5 overs, but bottled it thanks to some superb death bowling from the Kings.
There were a lot of memorable moments in the match that don't fade away, quite like the Axe Signature range of body perfumes. And here are 5 of the best:
Stoinis’ anchoring
As the IPL is progressing, lesser known faces are upping the ante. And the most recent to join the brigade is Marcus Stoinis. He has played 4 innings in the IPL so far and has scored 112 runs in the process at a healthy average of 28 and an even strike-rate of 130.23.
After scoring a duck in the last game against KKR, he made a strong comeback against Delhi Daredevils by scoring a solid 44-ball 52 to give them a good start. His innings gave the middle order a platform to stand and build on. Which they did, thanks to…
Saha’s fury
Wriddhiman Saha is finally coming of age. After MS Dhoni’s retirement from Test cricket, the Bengali boy has taken over the wicketkeeping duties from the former skipper. However, whether he could pace up his innings to suit the intricacies of T20 cricket was a matter that required answering.
And, so far, he has done a fine job in accelerating his batting pace.
Against Delhi, his mid-innings wrath increased the run-rate and helped his side post a highly competitive total on board. He, like Marcus Stoinis, scored 52 runs himself but at a much quicker rate than the Australia as it took only 33 balls to reach the mark.
Axar Patel has batting potential
It is safe to say that Axar Patel has impressed just as much with the bat as he has with the bowl in this tournament. And this is an analogy circulating a guy who has taken a hat-trick in this tournament—the only one of it thus far.
When he came to bat, KXIP would have been content with a target in the 170s. However, in the 5 balls that he played, he got them 10 runs more than they hoped for.
He came in and hit a six in the very first ball that he faced. He followed it with another six before finishing his innings with 16 runs from the 5 balls that he faced—something that made the difference in the end.
De Kock’s blast
The South African’s form fell after scoring that terrific ton against RCB. It spiralled downwards to the point where he scored only 15 runs from the next 3 games, before playing a well-paced knock of 46 against the Gujarat Lions.
This time, he made sure that his form didn’t fall and continued with the rise by blasting his way to a 30-ball 52.
Chasing a competitive score of 182, his quick-paced innings gave Delhi Daredevils the perfect start that they needed, but sadly for him, it went in vain as Punjab made a terrific comeback to win the game.
The art of death bowling
This can’t be classified as a ‘moment’ but this was the reason why Kings XI Punjab won the game with quite some ease in the end. With just 5 overs to go, Delhi Daredevils needed only 50 runs and they had 8 wickets in hand. Karun Nair and Sam Billings were the batsmen and the game was in their bag.
However, by the time the first ball of the last over was being bowled, Daredevils needed 25 of the penultimate over. We know the word that is playing in your mind: wow!
This just depicts the art of death bowling. From overs 15 to 19, KXIP managed to pick up 3 wickets while giving away only 25 runs in the process—that’s just a little over 6 runs-per-over. This is an astounding stat that would please the KXIP fans and associates alike.
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