IPL 2020, Match 38: Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Capitals – All-round performance helps KXIP register third consecutive win

With three back-to-back victories against the top three teams in this year’s IPL after tonight’s victory against the Delhi Capitals (DC), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) are now well and truly among the four teams that are in contention for the fourth playoff spot.

While Dhawan picked up from where he left off in DC’s last game with a flurry of boundaries to start off the innings, Prithvi Shaw, who had been one of DC’s key batsmen before Dhawan hit a good patch of form last game, never looked comfortable tonight, and was out to yet another poor shot, with his head everywhere and feet nowhere. Skipper Shreyas Iyer came in and played the shot that Shaw should have 4 balls ago and was rewarded six runs which helped in open his account. Dhawan ensured that DC went into the middle-overs on a high with 4 more hits off the carpet to the ropes.

Iyer was then dismissed by Murugan Ashwin in the 8th over, although the wicket should have belonged to Rahul for a splendid take down the leg-side after Iyer managed to get a faint nick to a ball sliding down leg. Glenn Maxwell and Ravi Bishnoi ensured that Pant did not get going, with the former scalping the DC wicketkeeper-batsman in his last over.

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It was the Shikhar Dhawan show from thereon, as he was the only one to keep the ante up towards the death overs as the likes of Stoinis and Hetmyer weren’t able to make an impression other than Hetmyer clearing the ropes once off Arshdeep. 2 balls before that, Dhawan had completed his second successive hundred, which made him the first Cricketer to do so in the IPL. DC finished on 164, with Shami producing a peach of a yorker to knock Hetmyer over off the last ball of the innings.

A no-ball from Australian left-arm pacer Daniel Sams, playing his first IPL match, meant that Rahul opened his account with a six off the free-hit. His quick start was short-lived though, as he ended up offering a catch to Sams at mid-on off Axar Patel in the third over and had to depart for 15 off 11. New batsman Chris Gayle took 5 balls to settle in, and targeted rookie pacer Tushar Deshpande once he was introduced in the 4th over, taking 25 out of the 26 runs in the over, including a couple of towering sixes and three boundaries.

DC acted quickly to repel the Gayle storm. Shreyas Iyer introduced the off-spin of Ashwin against Gayle, a ploy that worked within two deliveries. Ashwin got one to go straight through, escaping Gayle’s swinging bat, and the ball crashed into the stumps, a sight which made the usually slow-on-the-field Ashwin run faster than Yohan Blake in elation. Three balls later, a dreadful mix-up saw the back of Mayank Agarwal, who was woefully late to respond to new batsman Nicholas Pooran’s call for a single to short extra cover.

KXIP had lost three wickets alright, but Gayle’s onslaught ensured that they were well and truly ahead of the required rate. That helped Nicholas Pooran and Glenn Maxwell, two individuals who required telling performances this season, settle in. Of course, Pooran being the attacking-natured batsman that he is, could not resist going after Deshpande, who was reintroduced in the 9th over in the hope of providing a breakthrough bowling to two new batsmen. This time, Deshpande went for slightly less, but a 15-run over was still lethal for the DC at that stage.

Pooran did not spare Stoinis either, who had come on to bowl the following over. He first picked up the length and flat batted the ball through extra cover for four and followed that up with a massive maximum over long-on. Pooran brought up a well deserved fifty three overs later, but fell next ball to a peach from Rabada. It was down to Glenn Maxwell to take them home, in the process returning among the runs and to form. Alas, that was not to be, as he fell trying to go for that dismissive flick off Rabada, managed a leading edge, and Pant, despite a dodgy hamstring, covered a lot of ground and took an excellent catch.

Pooran with a well-deserved fifty tonight

The duo of Deepak Hooda and James Neesham played safely, dealing in singles and the occasional boundary with the required rate creeping below 6. It looked like they would take the game to the last over, only for Neesham to calmly swipe at a Daniel Sams delivery pitched in the slot, sending the ball well beyond the mid-wicket fence to take KXIP to 8 points.

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KXIP v DC – What went wrong for DC tonight

Prithvi Shaw’s poor shot selection conundrum making a second appearance this season

0, 0, 7. Other than being the number awarded to fictional character James Bond, the number represents the scores of Prithvi Shaw in the last three matches. Prior to that, he managed 4 in the game against Mumbai Indians and 19 against the Rajasthan Royals. For someone who had been delightful with his stroke-playing abilities in the initial stages of the tournament, Prithvi Shaw sure has turned out to be a major disappointment in the last few games with inexplicable shots, just like in the first couple of matches this season. Had it not been for Dhawan stumbling upon a purple patch, DC might have been in a lot more trouble by now.

Dhawan 106*, next best: Iyer 14(12)

Shikhar Dhawan took 10.1 overs to score 106 runs by himself and remain in the middle till the end. The remaining 9.5 overs saw the DC batsmen manage 54, with Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, both of whom failed to get going, share the second-highest individual score of 14 in the innings.

In contrast, it was Chris Gayle who first laid the foundation of the run-chase for KXIP in a very short span of time, which allowed Nicholas Pooran and Glenn Maxwell to ease in despite their side losing 3 wickets. Pooran batted freely, scoring yet another half-century this season, and after his dismissal, Maxwell took over the anchoring role. Although neither of them were able to stay until the end, they ensured that the KXIP lower order did not require doing anything extravagant with 18 left to chase and the run rate well under 6 an over.

Bowling Tushar Deshpande ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin against Chris Gayle

Had it not been for the 26-run over, the chase might have looked a lot more different. And with Gayle’s troubles against off-spin, his dismissal to Ashwin an over before would have released the cat among the pigeons for KXIP yet again, resulting in them making a meal out of yet another simple run chase.

Instead, it was rookie pacer Tushar Deshpande who was handed the ball against the rampant Gayle. Deshpande went for runs in his first game as well, but came back strongly. This time though, there was no respite for him. Whatever he bowled, good or bad, was dispatched to and over the fence with disdain. This resulted in KXIP racing to 50 in 5 overs, and the game was half won by them right there.