Kings XI Punjab beats Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets in 38th match of 2020 IPL. This is third win in a row for Punjab and they moved up to 5th place in the table standing with 8 points in 10 matches.
Punjab is just 2 point shy of 4th placed Kolkata Knight Riders for the final playoff spot. KL Rahul’s men are in good form after defeating top-3 teams (RCB,MI & DC) in a row, with just 4 games left in the competition, every game is a must win for them to stay in the hunt for knockouts.
Earlier, Delhi Captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first. But they just managed to score 164/5 in 20 overs. Man of the match winner, Shikhar Dhawan scored back-to-back century with 106 runs in 61 balls (12X 4’s and 3X6’s) performance. Unfortunately he didn’t get enough support from the other end, kudos to Punjab bowler for restricting them to a moderate target.
Iyer (14 runs) , Pant (14 runs) are second highest scorers for Delhi. Mohammed Shami bowled exceptionally well, the Indian ace finished the game with 4-0-28-2 bowling figures.
In-form Punjab openers KL Rahul(15 from 11) & Mayank Agarwal (5 from 9) got out early, Chris Gayle (29 runs from 13 balls) joined them after scoring 26 runs from Tushar Deshpande’s over.
Punjab were 56/3 in 5.5 overs before Pooran and Maxwell put up a 69 run partnership for 4th wicket. KG Rabada dismissed both set batsman Pooran (53 runs from 28 balls) and Maxwell (32 runs from 24 balls) before Neesham and Hooda close out the game for Kings XI.
Delhi Capitals Spin duo R Ashwin (4-0-27-1) & Axar Patel (4-0-27-1) bowled well along with Rabada (4-0-27-2). New comer Daniel Sams and Tushar Deshpande were on expensive side for Delhi.
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Post-Match Reaction & Man of the Match :
Shikhar Dhawan, Man of the Match:
“The boys have been playing well in other games. Today I had to take the responsibility on myself. I really enjoyed it today. It is good that I am scoring consistently so you carry it into the next games. We are going to have a discussion and see where we can improve. Of course it is going to be a learning. This is not going to put us down. Just take our lessons, and come back stronger.”
KL Rahul, Captain of KINGS XI Punjab:
“My heart keeps reaching new limits every game but yeah it is nice to finish it in the 19th over for once. I did wonder, I won’t lie, especially when you are playing with six batsmen and an allrounder. It is something every team talks about: the set batsman has to finish off the game. One of the top four does that. We have to correct that. They have been bowling really well.
Shami obviously is coming in with confidence from the last game. He is our senior bowler, and an international, and he is getting better and better every game. Arshdeep bowled two overs in the Powerplay and one at the death. To nail six out of six yorkers is great. Shows you the work he and the coaches have been putting in. Glenn is a great team man.
He has been batting well in the nets. It was important to back him. It was good to see him get time in the middle. Hopefully he carries this good work into the coming games I didn’t sleep a whole lot after that Sunday game. Took a long time to sink in. Kept thinking all night how we could have closed it off before the Super Over. But it keeps us humble; the game is bigger than any of us.”
Nicholas Pooran:
“Wonderful game. We spoke about being consistent. Get better in areas that we have not been good. Really happy we didn’t go to the last over again. I have been working really hard, and hitting it well. I didn’t finish off, which is disappointing for me. I am a natural aggressive player. if it is in my zone, I hit it. Simple.”
Shreyas Iyer, Captain of Delhi Capitals:
“I feel we fell 10 runs short. Nevertheless we have got a lot of learnings from this game. Shikhar batted brilliantly, that is a positive. Tushar leaked a lot of runs, but this has happened to the best of all. So he will learn a lot from it. The message from Shikhar to the new batsmen was that the wicket was stopping a little bit. I am really glad this happened because the boys will be really motivated in the next game. The fielding wasn’t up to the mark. So we will learn from this and come back strong.”
