Picture : Twitter / IPL
Rishabh Pant led Delhi Capitals moved closer towards the Play- offs spot as they they beat Punjab Kings by 17 runs in must win clash at the DY Patil stadium.
Put into bat by Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals began on shaky note losing in-from David Warner early for ( 0) . Other opener Sarfaraz Khan added spark to the innings with blazing 16 ball 32 with five fours and one six. But it was the big Aussie Mitchell Marsh, hitting his second fifty of the Tata IPL 2022 that gave the innings the momentum. Marsh was superb in his power packed 48 ball 63 with fours fours and three sixes. He anchored the innings well. Skipper Rishabh Pant was out early for (7), Lalit Yadav ( 24) , big- hitting Rovman Powell ( 2), Shardul Thakur (3), Axar Patel remained not out on 17 and not out Kuldeep Yadav ( 2). DC managing to reach 159/ 7 in their 20 overs.
FIFTY!
A well made half-century for Mitchell Marsh 👏👏
Live – https://t.co/twuPEouUzK #PBKSvDC #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/bTljLpmghX
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 16, 2022
For Punjab Kings : Liam Livingstone was the star with figures of 3/ 27 ( 4 overs) , Kagiso Rabada 1/ 24 ( 4 overs), Harpreet Brar 0/ 29 (3 overs), Rishi Dhawan 0/ 17 ( 2 overs), Arshdeep Singh 3/ 37 ( 4 overs), Rahul Chahar 0/ 19 ( 4 overs)
Punjab Kings with their batting line- up was expected to win this one . But unfortunately after a bright start the batting flopped . Jonny Bairstow began on a confident note it looked the Kings would have it easy . But soon after Bairstow dismissal a 15 ball 28 others could not carry on. Experienced Shikhar Dhawan ( 19) , Bhanuka Rajapaksa ( 4), Skipper Mayank Agarwal ( 0), the big hope Liam Livingstone ( 3). Jitesh Sharma tried hard for 34 ball innings of 44, Harpreet Brar ( 1), Rishi Dhawan ( 4). The Punjab batting horror show shocked Kings coach Anil Kumble into disbelief , Rahul Chahar threw his bat around for 34 but it was not enough as Punjab finished at 142/ 9 in their 20 overs. Delhi winning by 17 runs.
For Delhi Capitals their bowlers came to the party : Shardul Thakur was impressive for the first time 4/ 36 ( 4 overs), Axar Patel 2/ 14 ( 4 overs), Kuldeep Yadav 2/ 14 ( 4 overs) , Anrich Nortje 1/ 29 ( 4 overs) , Khaleel Ahmed 0/ 43( 40 vers), Lalit Yadav 0/ 6 ( 1 over)
With this win, DC jumped a place to fourth with 14 points from 13 matches. Royal Challengers Bangalore (14 from 13 matches) have the same points as DC but they were pushed down to fifth spot as they have -0.323 NRR compared +0.255 of Delhi.
Punjab, who remained at seventh spot with 12 points from 13 matches, are virtually out of reckoning for a play-offs berth as they also have a -0.043 net run rate.
