KXIP stay alive in the tournament after tonight win against DC

KXIP stay alive in the tournament after tonight’s win. They defeated table toppers Delhi Capitals despite Dhawan’s brilliant hundred and on the back of some excellent all-round performance.

PERFORMERS OF THE DAY

KINGS XI PUNJAB Bat: Nicholas Pooran 53(28) Glenn Maxwell 32(24) Bowl: Mohammed Shami 4-0-28-2
DELHI CAPITALS Bat: Shikhar Dhawan 106(61) Bowl: Kagiso Rabada 4-0-27-2 R Ashwin 4-0-27-1

AS IT HAPPENED

Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to bat first. Shreyas Iyer said at the toss that they’re decision to bat first was backed by the fact that they’ve won most of their games doing so.

There’s some serious trouble for Delhi at the top, apart from Dhawan. Shaw and Shreyas have not been amongst the runs for a few matches now. Shaw’s faulty technique against the back of a length delivery is nowhere to hide. DC were 53-1 after the powerplay.

Dhawan’s consistency has been top notch. He’s carrying DC’s batting on his shoulders. He became the first player in IPL to score back to back hundreds. He has also carried the bat on both the occasions. On the contrary, tonight saw the lowest score ever by a team in IPL with a batsman scoring a ton.

Lack of Support for Dhawan

There was lack of support for Dhawan from any other DC batter. The inability of Stoinis and Hetmeyer to finish things tidily coupled with some good bowling by Punjab saw DC make just 47 in the last 5 overs despite having 7 wickets in hand. DC finished with 164-5

Punjab Win Without Rahul and Mayank
Perhaps the most pleasing thing for Punjab tonight was that they managed to win without Rahul and Mayank. Both of them departed inside the powerplay. Gayle entertained for a while as he smashed Tushar Deshpande but wasn’t able to see the end of the powerplay. After the power play, they were 57-3.

Middle Order’s Redemption

It looked like DC would squeeze a win but KXIP’s middle order finally got their act together and redeemed themselves. Pooran smashed a 28 balls 53 and Maxwell too got some runs under his belt which will give him some confidence going forward.Credit to Pooran’s strike rate, Punjab had just 24 more to get from the last five which they did quite comfortably. Rabada, Axar and Ashwin had economies of under 7 but there weren’t just enough runs on the board. DC still is pretty comfortably placed on the table while Punjab still has some work to do. KXIP stay alive in the tournament after tonight win against DC.

Read Also : Rajasthan Won by 7 wickets against Chennai