IPL 2018, DD vs KXIP: Four things you might have missed

The 22nd match of IPL-2018 saw Delhi Daredevils playing their first home game against Kings XI Punjab.

Punjab had a dream start to the tournament winning four out of their first 5 matches whereas Delhi in a complete contrast lost four out of their first 5.

Delhi captain, Gautam Gambhir won the toss and decided to field first. Delhi bowlers drew first blood as they surprised the Punjab batsmen with pace and bounce and reduced them to a modest total of 143.

Delhi started their chase positively with young Prithvi Shaw taking the attack to the opposition but they lost their way in the middle.

Despite the wholehearted effort from Shreyas Iyer towards the end, Delhi fell just four runs short of the target.

Among all the drama that happened, let us take a look at some of the things that went unnoticed.

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#1 First reverse fixture in IPL-2018

The first game went in the favour of the Punjab outfit

IPL-2018 witnessed its first reverse fixture today. Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab found themselves facing each other again, just at a different venue this time.

The two teams last played against each other in what was just the second match of the tournament where Punjab absolutely dominated Delhi with KL Rahul scoring the fastest half-century in the history of Indian Premier League.

Kings easily haunted down the modest target of 167 runs with an over to spare.

The reverse fixture saw no change in fortunes for Delhi as they came close but eventually lost the thriller by four runs.

#2 Late introduction of spin

Mishra started bowling from the 10th over

Gambhir used a different tactic in today’s match when he introduced his spinners late in the game.

He used the pace of Trent Boult and Anesh Khan upfront in the powerplay and chipped in overs from Daniel Christian and Liam Plunkett.

It was only in the 10th over of the innings when the Delhi skipper unleashed the leg-spin of Amit Mishra and bowled a couple of overs from Glenn Maxwell.

Gambhir’s strategy of using his pacers early against the batting heavy top order of Kings XI Punjab definitely pitched rich dividends as Punjab only managed 63 runs in the first nine overs and also lost three important wickets.

The early setbacks definitely hampered Punjab’s hope of a good first innings score.

#3 Liam Plunkett: Best figures on debut for Delhi Daredevils

Plunkett had a good start to his IPL tenure

After a shocking start to the tournament, Delhi Daredevils decided to completely revamp their side making as many as four changes.

The most awarding of them though was the inclusion of Liam Plunkett who was drafted in as the replacement of Kagiso Rabada.

Plunkett impressed everyone on his IPL debut as he picked 3 wickets in his 4 overs giving away just 17 runs.

These were the best figures on debut for a Delhi Daredevils bowler, previous best being 3/32 by Doug Bracewell against RCB in 2012.

Plunkett cracked up some serious pace upfront and used his slower bowls to great effect at the death.

He demolished the much talked top order of Kings XI Punjab scalping the wickets of Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Karun Nair.

#4 All wickets going to pacers

The pacers were on song for Delhi

In what was a very rare occurrence in an IPL game, the Delhi pacers picked up all the wickets that fell in Punjab’s innings.

Delhi fielded four pace bowling options in Boult, Khan, Plunkett and Christian. All the pacers were among the wickets. They picked up eight wickets among themselves conceding only 91 runs in the 14 overs they bowled.

The Delhi pace battery broke the back of Punjab’s batting and restricted them to a modest target of 143.

Though they were ably backed up by their spinners, the fast bowlers certainly stole the show on the day.

Looking at the future, Delhi seems to have found a perfect bowling attack that could win them matches on any given day.

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