Pant hits Lions out of the park
Daredevils batsman misses a ton, but his 43ball 97 makes light of big target set by Gujarat Lions
Rishabh Pant stole the show with a breathtaking 97 off 43 balls and shared in a 143-run stand with Sanju Samson (61) to help Delhi Daredevils register a thumping seven-wicket win over Gujarat Lions in the IPL at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Thursday.
This was the second-highest chase in the history of IPL and the result not only kept Delhi Daredevils in the race for a playoff spot, but it also knocked Gujarat Lions out of the tournament.
Samson, Pant dazzle Delhi with a brutal stand
The partnership between Pant and Samson dazzled the capacity crowd at the Kotla and the batsmen displayed fearless and powerful hitting. Chasing 209, Delhi Daredevils lost stand-in skipper Karun Nair for 12 but Pant joined Samson and turned the match on its head. The left-hander started the carnage when he thumped Basil Tampi over deep extra cover for a flat six, and proceeded to blast two sixes and a four off Pradeep Sangwan.
The Delhi lad thrilled the home crowd as he continued to deal in sixes, notching up his fifty off 27 balls by pulling skipper Suresh Raina over deep mid wicket for his fifth six. Samson, who was watching the carnage from the other end, was boosted by Pant’s aggression and slammed two sixes off leg-spinner Ankit Soni. However, Pant raised his aggression to another level by hammering three sixes and a four off James Faulkner.
Samson notched up his fifty off 24 balls by thrashing two consecutive sixes off Ravindra Jadeja. The pair had hit seven sixes in three overs and in the last five had blasted 74 runs. The 143-run stand was ended when Samson miscued a pull shot to be caught at long off.
Pant raced to the 90s with a four and six off Jadeja but on 97, edged Thampi to Dinesh Karthik. All hopes of a fightback from Gujarat Lions were quashed as Shreyas Iyer blasted a couple of more sixes. Corey Anderson sealed the match with a six off Faulkner as Delhi won with 15 balls to spare.
Earlier, Gujarat Lions notched up 208/7, their highest score in IPL thanks to a magnificent 77 from skipper Suresh Raina and an aggressive 65 from Dinesh Karthik. The batsmen shared a 133-run stand for the third wicket, which helped Gujarat Lions recover from a disastrous start.
After losing Brendon Mccullum (1) and Dwayne Smith (9), Raina capitalised on some good luck as he was dropped twice en route to his 31st IPL fifty.