Shaw-stopper: Prithvi rules as Knight Riders crumble
Opener’s 82 guides Capitals to second spot in the standings with their fifth victory in seven matches
NEW DELHI: Prithvi Shaw has come with a single-minded approach this Ipl—attack and more attack. The Delhi Capitals opener produced a supreme exhibition of that approach against Kolkata Knight Riders in Ahmedabad on Thursday as he set new milestones to steer his team to a seven-wicket victory.
Shaw is only into his fourth IPL season. The version 2 of the youngster is out to prove a point, after a slump in the last edition and on the Australia tour had many writing him off. KKR felt the heat on Thursday. Shaw reached his half-century off 18 balls—the fastest this season and the basis of Delhi’s comprehensive win.
The 21-year-old achieved it with the help of nine fours and a six—six of those fours came in the first over bowled by pacer Shivam
Mavi. Shaw became the second batsman to hit six fours in an over in
IPL. He is also the first batsman in T20s to achieve the feat in the first over of a match. At the other end of the spectrum was KKR opener Shubman Gill. He was sitting pretty at 43 off 37 balls when he holed out to Steve Smith at long on off Avesh Khan’s slower ball. It was the young opener’s highest score this season and included three fours and a six. Each of those big shots were delivered with a style that has made the 21-year-old one of the most exciting prospects in Indian cricket.
Yet Gill got dismissed when he was expected to raise the tempo against Delhi. It has been the same story every game. At the top of Kolkata’s batting order, Gill has regularly fumbled while trying to force the pace of the innings. He and fellow opener Nitish Rana taking their time to settle down has often left the middle order with a lot to do. It meant that despite Andre Russell’s late charge (45*, 27b), Delhi bowlers restricted KKR to 154/6 in 20 overs.
While Gill has struggled, his 2018 U-19 World Cup captain Shaw has dismantled bowling attacks with a single-minded, attacking approach. He showcased it with a 38-ball 72 in the season opener against Chennai Super Kings and repeated it with a 39-ball 53 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Against Kolkata, Shaw topped it up by ending on 82 off 41 balls (11x4s, 3x6s).
Shaw’s graph has been on the rise since he was dropped from the Test team in Australia in December. Gill has taken his place then. But Shaw is fast making up for all that, having spent time polishing his technique and then testing it successfully at domestic level before IPL. Against Kolkata, Shaw was in his elements from that first over by Mavi. Shaw started with a clean strike over Mavi’s head, going on to deliver five more boundaries that set the tone for the chase. Mavi delivered an in-swiger, a low full toss, a short ball—each one handed the same treatment.
Kolkata brought on Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine in the powerplay. Even they were not spared by Shaw. At the world’s biggest cricket stadium, Shaw wanted to go big and fast. At the end of the powerplay, Delhi were cruising at over 11 per over, courtesy Shaw. Fellow opener Shikhar Dhawan was happy to let his young teammate call the shots. There was brief silence from the sixth to ninth overs, when only two boundaries were scored. Shaw broke that spell as he lofted Chakravarthy over long-off with an outstretched Gill missing a tough chance in the 10th over. Shaw’s timing and sense of the field placements meant Kolkata hardly saw a chance to stop him till it was too late.
Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 154/6 in 20 overs (A
Russell 45*, S Gill 43; L Yadav 2/13) lost to Delhi Capitals 156/3 in 16.3 overs (P Shaw 82, S Dhawan 46; P Cummins 3/24) by seven wickets.
TV timing: PBKS vs RCB, live on Star Sports 1 & 1 HD, 7:30pm