It was the match of the back benchers of IPL. The bottom 2 teams of IPL 8 faced each other at the Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi. The match was expected to be a close one. This is the least that one could expect from these teams; to put up a contest. The pitch was patchy at lengths with some balls whizzing through and some keeping low and slow. DD won the toss and had no hesitation in bowling first. Zaheer made it clear that they were looking to chase in order to give their young batsmen a true chance to showcase their skills when they had a target in front of them. Given a chance, Punjab would have bowled first too, mentioned Punjab skipper, David Miller.
Punjab had the worst possible start as Murali Vijay was run out in the 2nd over of the innings for just 1 run off 5 balls.
Manan Vohra and Shaun Marsh tried to resurrect the innings with a 29 run stand, but once Amit Mishra came to bowl the 7th over of the innings, all hell broke loose for Punjab.
Mishra had Shaun Marsh stumped on his first ball and then had the big fishes Miller and Maxwell in his 2nd over. He was not done yet, he completed his 3rd over with the wicket of the set batsmen Manan Vohra. Mishra Broke the back of Punjab`s batting single handedly with figures for 4 for 11 off his 3 overs. At one point, Punjab did not even look to play out their quota of 20 overs but some late runs from tailenders Mohit Sharma and Pradeep Sahu helped Punjab reach 111 for 9 in 20 overs. The score was no way near a fighting one, as proved at the end of the match.
Delhi did not start well either as Shreyas Iyer was sent back by Sandeep Sharma for 3 runs with the team total on 9. Quinton De Kock and the new batsman Sanju Samson survived some anxious moments and a dropped catch to get going once the power play was over.
DD were 28 for 1 at the end of powerplay.
But as the field opened out, so did the batsman, scoring the required 84 runs off the next 7.3 overs losing the sole wicket of Samson for 33 in the closing stages of the matches.
Quinton De Kock top scored with an unbeaten 59 off 42 balls and Pawan Negi finished off the match with a six over midwicket off the 2nd ball he faced. With this win, DD open their account in this year`s IPL with 2 points.
Delhi Daredevils completely outclassed the Kings XI Punjab today.
They walked away with the match in great style. They out bowled, out batted and out fielded the Kings completely. The Punjab team will need a miraculous performance from someone to life them out of this situation. With Killer Miller and Big Show Maxwell in the line up, miracles can not be far away.