Delhi Capitals beat Kings XI Punjab by five wickets

Agencies
April 21, 2019

Apr 21: Delhi Capitals avenged their shocking first-leg defeat with a five-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab, brightening their prospects of making the playoffs of the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Chasing 164 for a win, senior opener Shikhar Dhawan laid the foundation with a fluent 56 of 41 balls, while skipper Shreyas Iyer contributed an unbeaten 58 off 49 balls to complete the job with two balls to spare. Iyer hit five fours and a six.

In the first leg in Mohali, DC lost seven wickets for eight runs to gift KXIP victory after sitting pretty at 144 for three in the 17th over while chasing 168.

On Saturday, the home side were 141 for three at the end of the 17th over with 23 needed off 18 balls.

Colin Ingram found the fence twice in the next over to ease the nerves and push DC closer to the target.

Dhawan struck seven fours and a six before Ravichandran Ashwin ran from mid-on to the midwicket region to complete a fine catch while avoiding a collision with an onrushing Chris Gayle.

During his stay in the middle, Dhawan had some fun by dancing around the crease as Ashwin threatened to Mankad him.

This was DC's second win at home in five outings and sixth overall, occupying the third place in the standings. KXIP remained on fourth with 10 points.

Earlier, Chris Gayle smashed five gargantuan sixes into the stands before Delhi Capitals put the brakes and restricted Kings XI Punjab to 163 for seven.

Gayle top-scored with 69 off 37 balls, reaching his half-century in 25 balls and hitting six boundaries besides the towering sixes.

Coming back into the team, young leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane returned figures of 3/40, playing an influential role in helping DC rally after Gayle's blitzkrieg.

Considering the dew factor in mind, Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer invited the visitors to bat first.

And the home side, seeking to end their run of woes at the Feroz Shah Kotla, enjoyed early success when Lamichhane tossed the ball up and had Lokesh Rahul stumped with one that turned sharply in the second over.

Ignored for the World Cup primarily because he is considered inferior to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps, Rishabh Pant did a fine job whipping the bails off in a flash, as Rahul walked back after welcoming Lamichhane with a six down the ground and a four.

Apart from managing two runs from the nine deliveries he faced, Mayank Agarwal watched the action unfold from the other end, as Gayle flayed the Delhi spinners.

The 'Universe Boss', entering the game with 421 runs from nine matches, started his onslaught by smashing Ishant Sharma's knuckle ball over long on for one of the biggest sixes the stadium has ever witnessed, the 101m maximum threatening to break the windows of The Willingdon Pavilion.

He toyed with Amit Sharma and smoked the experienced leg-spinner for three maximums, including two over the deep mid wicket region.

Before that, the big-hitting Jamaican, one of the biggest globetrotters in T20 leagues, cut, drove and swept Lamichhane for four boundaries in a single over.

It took a brilliant effort from Colin Ingram in the deep to bring to an end Gayle's stay in the middle.

After sweeping a Lamichhane delivery into the crowd, Gayle went for one too many, and Ingram lobbed the ball to Axar Patel before falling on the other side of the rope.

Returning to the playing XI, Lamichhane dismissed Sam Curran in the same 13th over in which he dismissed Gayle, to peg the visitors back.

Pacer Kagiso Rabad had 2/23 in four overs, while Axar Patel took 2/22 in three overs.

The Delhi openers started in right earnest but the young Prithvi Shaw, after showing promise, was run out after Dhawan changed his mind to leave his partner stranded at the non-striker's end.

As if to make amends, Dhawan scored two boundaries off Hardus Viljoen in the next two deliveries to take DC to 35 for one at the end of the fourth over.

Debutant left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar was welcomed with a six over long-on by Dhawan, and then, Shreyas Iyer fetched two fours by employing the cut shot as the over yielded 17 runs.

Captain Ravichandran Ashwin introduced himself into the attack and Dhawan was on the ball straightaway, pulling him for a boundary over mid-wicket.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Indian pacer S Sreesanth has slammed England all-rounder Ben Stokes for questioning MS Dhoni's intent during a World Cup match, saying that the former captain will end Stokes' career.

Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' had questioned Dhoni's intent during India's 31-run defeat at the hands of England in the premier tournament last year.

"For Ben Stokes, I will only say that you should pray that Dhoni does not play against you in the future. Dhoni does not forget things easily," Sreesanth said during a Live session on Helo.

"I wish Stokes all the best for whenever he faces Dhoni again, be it IPL or an England vs India match. You must be earning in millions now, Dhoni Bhai will end your career. Dhoni will strike the ball everywhere and he (Stokes) can never dismiss Dhoni. Before he (Stokes) opens his mouth, he should make sure to wear a helmet," he added.

Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding had also come out in support of Dhoni and said that the wicket-keeper batsman wanted to win the match against England.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding had said on his official YouTube channel.

"...It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 percent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," he had added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.