KINGS ON TOP
Kings XI Punjab moved to the top of the IPL standings with a nail-biting four-run win over Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Monday.
Put into bat by Gautam Gambhir, Punjab managed a paltry 143 for 8 but their bowlers did well to restrict Delhi to 139 for 8.
After travelling five matches on the road Delhi came home and their fans were expecting a turnaround in fortunes but their batsmen disappointed during their chase. Captain Gautam Gambhir (4), Glenn Maxwell (12) and Rishabh Pant (4) let their team down. It was left to Shreyas Iyer (57) and Rahul Tewatia (24) to give them some hope before both departed as the team came close to sniffing victory.
Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye and Mujeeb Ur Rehman bagged two wickets each for Punjab.
With this win Punjab have catapulted to 10 points from six matches, ahead of Chennai Super Kings who are on 8 points from five played.
Delhi continue to languish at the bottom with two points from six matches.
Earlier, a disciplined bowling effort by Delhi Daredevils restricted Kings XI Punjab to a paltry 143 for 8.
Pacer Liam Plunkett scalped three wickets while Avesh Khan and Trent Boult chipped in with two each to hurt the Punjab’s batting line-up which was already jolted by the absence of Chris Gayle who pulled up a bit sore.
Put in to bat, the visitors received the early blow when Avesh dismissed opener Aaron Finch (2) in the second over.
Incoming batter Mayank Agarwal and opener Lokesh Rahul (23) then showed some resistance, putting on a 36-run partnership for the second wicket to take Punjab to 42 runs. However, Plunkett struck in the fifth over to put an end to Rahul’s innings.
Agarwal (21) was the next to depart as in-form Plunkett struck again in the eighth over, which left Punjab reeling at 60 for 3.
After adding 15 more runs to the total, Avesh sent back out-of-form veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh (14) to make things worse for the visitors.
Yuvraj’s fall brought Karun Nair in the middle, who showed a little fight against the hosts and slammed 34 runs to take his team past the 100-run mark before falling in the 17th over to Plunkett.
Delhi’s Daniel Christian also joined the party and dismissed David Miller (26) with Punjab’s scorecard reading 127 for 6. Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (6 runs off 7 balls), Andrew Tye (3) managed to take Punjab to 143.