What a match! 23 runs needed off 21 balls with 7 wickets in hand and Delhi Capitals couldn’t win. Credit not to be taken away from the Punjab bowlers, with Shami and the English star Sam Curran rattling away the Delhi batting lineup.
The match started with a twist itself with Sam Curran opening with KL Rahul in place of Chris Gayle. A brave decision by Ashwin. In the last 3 games Punjab had faced a problem of not having a sixth bowling option but Curran opening the batting solved all issues. The start was fairly decent by Rahul and Curran but a flurry of wickets with the run out of Mayank Agarwal seemed to stop the run flow for a bit. Then Sarfaraz and Miller stitched a very useful partnership followed by a collapse at the end with 6 wickets falling for just 36 runs. Two big blows from Mandeep Singh on the last two balls helped the Kings reach a score of 166 for 9 with Miller top scoring (43 from 30 balls). A decent score, but easily chasable on the Mohali pitch, also considering the strong batting lineup of Delhi.
Delhi’s start was awful with Prithvi Shaw falling off the first ball from Ashwin. Then a Fifty-run partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer somewhat ressurected the Capitals. Both of them fell quickly scoring 30 and 28 respectivley. The two left handers Rishab Pant and Colin Ingram brought Delhi very close.With just 23 runs needed off 21 balls, Pant fell, triggering a collapse. Chris Morris fell off the very next ball owing to a magnificent direct hit by Ashwin. Sam Curran bowled the 18th over and got rid of Ingram and Harshal. Mantle was now onHanuma Vihari to finish the match who fell prey to a Shami special. Two wickets from Curran on the first two balls of the last over ended the Delhi innings and Kings XI Punjab won by 14 runs.
From 144–3 to 152–10, a day to forget for the Delhi Capitals. But at the same time a lot of positives for Punjab, especially Sam Curran.
He claimed the first hat-trick of this season on Monday night and also became the second youngest foreigner to get a 4 wicket haul.
With this Punjab moved to second on the points table with three wins under their belt. Really a fantastic performance from the team!
