Kings XI Punjab new captain Ravichandran Ashwin captaincy started on a winning note beating Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets in the 2nd match of IPL at PCA Stadium, Mohali earlier today in the 1st match of the day. R Ashwin won the toss and invited Delhi to bat. DD captain Gambhir scored 55 runs, Pant 28, Chris Morris 27 helped visitors post 166 for 7. Chasing 167, KL Rahul scored the fastest fifty off IPL history and Karun Nair half-century helped Kings XI Punjab register their first win.
Kings XI Punjab captain R Ashwin won the toss and elected to field first. Delhi Daredevils got off to a poor start losing hard-hitting Collin Munro for 4 runs. Gambhir steadied the innings and at the end of first six overs, DD scored 45 for 1. After the dismissal of Iyer, Vijay Shankar was promoted ahead of Pant. Captain Gambhir reached his half-century off 36 balls. Pant also made a quick-fire 28 off 13 balls.
In the last few overs, Chris Morris and Daniel Christian scored at a quick pace adding 41 runs. DD posted 166 for 7 in 20 overs. For Kings XI Punjab, young Afghan teen sensation Mujeeb Ur Rahman took 2 wickets on his debut.
Chasing 167, KL Rahul was in cracking form smashing Delhi Daredevils bowlers to all parts of the ground. The Indian opener scored the fastest half-century in IPL history off 14 balls. Mayank Agarwal was dismissed for 7 runs. Soon after KL Rahul was dismissed for 51.
At the end of first 6 overs, Kings XI Punjab posted 73 for 2. After the powerplay overs, Karun Nair also looked in fluent touch while Yuvraj Singh struggled to time ball. Yuvraj Singh was dismissed scoring just 12 runs off 22 balls.
Karun Nair reached his half-century off 31 balls and was dismissed soon after. Marcus Stoinis and David Miller made sure that Kings XI Punjab won the match with ease.
For Delhi, Chris Morris, Dan Christian, Trent Boult and Rahul Tewtia picked one wicket each.
Kings XI Punjab 167 for 4 in 18.5 overs ( KL Rahul 51, Karun Nair 50, R Tewtia 1/24) beat
Delhi Daredevils 166 for 7 in 20 overs ( Gambhir 55, Pant 28, Chris Morris 27*, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/28, Mohit Sharma 2/32) by 6 wickets.
DD captain Gambhir said: We got a decent total, KL Rahul took the game away from us. Credit to our bowlers that we took the game till 19th over. When the ball got old, it was tough to hit big shots. 166 was a competitive total.
Kings XI Punjab captain R Ashwin: KL Rahul played a gem of innings which provided a solid foundation for our team to start on a winning note. Our bowlers did brilliantly restrict DD side to just 166. Mujeeb Ur Rahman took 2 wickets and impressed everyone on his debut.
Man of the match KL Rahul said: It was an amazing effort by our team. I was branded a test cricketer, created and broke the record of the fastest half-century in IPL history. Hope to continue the same way.
