IPL 2019, KXIP vs DC: Curran grabs hat-trick, Delhi lose 7 wickets for 8 runs as KXIP script heist
With four overs to go, DC were holding all the aces, needing just 30 off 24 balls with seven wickets in hand before exploding in spectacular fashion. The carnage for Delhi started in the 17th over by Shami.
Skipper R Ashwin led from the front as Sam Curran wreaked havoc taking 4 for 11, including a hat-trick, as a gritty Kings XI Punjab showed stomach to fight and fashioned a 14-run win over Delhi Capitals.
With four overs to go, DC were holding all the aces, needing just 30 off 24 balls with seven wickets in hand before exploding in spectacular fashion. The carnage for Delhi started in the 17th over by Shami. (Full scorecard)
Shami’s over defined the match as he first bowled the dangerous Rishabh Pant for 39 and then Ashwin’s direct throw caught Chris Morris short of crease with the batsman trying to finish a suicidal single of the next ball. Delhi were reduced to 144 for 5. In the very next over, Sam Curran provided twin blows removing Colin Ingram for 38, caught at long off, and then having Harshal Patel edge one to Rahul for duck on the last ball. Curran returned to bowl the last over snaring Kagiso Rabada and Sandeep Lamichhane off first two balls to complete his hat-trick, finishing with figures of 4 for 11.
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Defending a par score of 166, Punjab started well with Prithvi Shaw caught behind off the very first ball of R Ashwin’s over. DC skipper Shreyas Iyer (28) and Shikhar Dhawan (30) added 61 runs for the second wicket to keep Delhi’s chase on track.
Later, Rishabh Pant and Ingram stitched a fourth-wicket partnership of 62 runs off 41 balls before it all went horribly wrong for Delhi Capitals.
Earlier, between an audacious Dilscoop by Sarfaraz Khan and David Miller finding his arc, Kings XI Punjab almost made a mess before recovering to post 166/9.
That Punjab missed an injured Chris Gayle upfront will be an understatement, and it showed in the early overs. Both Chris Morris and Capital’s hero of the last match, Kagiso Rabada, managed to keep things by and large quiet. KL Rahul opened with his new partner Sam Curran and both managed decent cameos before getting out adjudged leg before.
Rahul managed a few crisp fours in his brief stay of 15, falling to an incoming ball from Morris, while Curran played a couple of lovely cover drives in scoring 20 off 10 balls before falling to Capitals’ young Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane.
Mayank Agarwal was run out by an alert Shikhar Dhawan at cover. With Agarwal backing up too far, Dhawan was quick to score a direct hit, catching the Kings XI batsman short of the crease at the non-strikers’ end. At that point, KXIP were struggling at 58/3 in the eighth over.
However, Sarfaraz Khan and David Miller added 62 runs for the fourth wicket in 40 balls, helping Punjab wriggle their way out of trouble. Capitals’ bowlers put up a superb effort and managed to dictate terms before the pair came together.
The trio of Rabada (2/32), Morris (3/30) and Lamichhane (2/27) were snapping at the batsmen’s heels, never letting their opponents really settle down.
Sarfaraz looked good in his stay and targeted pacer Avesh Khan, who had been picked in place of leg-spinner Amit Mishra. Lamichhane removed Sarfaraz for 39, foxing him with a wide delivery that he nicked to Rishabh Pant. Miller fell to his South African compatriot Morris, who beat the batsman with an off-cutter. Pant again didn’t make a mistake in pouching the skier. With Miller gone for 43 off 30 balls (4x4, 2x6), Capitals again gained the upper hand. Kings XI again struggled in the final stages of the innings as only 29 runs came of the last four overs. Morris confounded skipper R Ashwin with a full toss that crashed into off-stump. Mandeep Singh, who has not been able to produce a substantial knock coming late in the innings, found it difficult to get going although coming in before the 15th over.
