Delhi Capitals beat Punjab Kings by seven wickets in Ahmedabad on Sunday to go to 12 points from eight games and in the process, reclaim their position at the top of the points table. They now have won six games and have become the first team to doing this year’s VIVO IPL so far. Shikhar Dhawan scored his third fifty of the season to seal Delhi’s win. More about the report in detail below.
Chasing 167 to win Shikhar Dhawan yet again anchored the chase for Delhi Capitals who won the game with more than two overs to spare. He scored an unbeaten 69 off 47 balls as the other batters batted around him. He shared an opening stand of 63 within the powerplay with Prithvi Shaw (39 off 22) playing an aggressive knock. After Shaw was dismissed by Harpreet Brar, Steve Smith (24) added an important 48-run stand with Dhawan in the middle overs. Skipper Rishabh Pant scored 14 off 11 and at last Shimron Hetmyer scored 16 off just four balls to win the game for his side. Meanwhile, Dhawan with 380 runs is the proud owner of the Orange Cap at the moment.
Shikhar Dhawan’s 69* Sets Up Delhi Capitals’ Win
On a good batting wicket, a score of 167 was just not enough fr Punjab Kings bowlers to challenge the Delhi Capitals batters. Despite the best efforts of the Punjab bowlers, they were not able to take wickets. The Delhi batsmen also negated the impact of Brar and Bishnoi who went wicketless on the night.
Earlier in the game, Mayank Agarwal scored an unbeaten 99 to take Punjab Kings to 166/6 after Delhi Capitals won the toss and opted to bowl first. He replaced KL Rahul as the skipper of the side and hit eight fours and four sixes in his knock. None of the other Punjab Kings batters apart from Dawid Malan came up with a sizeable contribution. Malan scored 26 and it was Agarwal’s late blitz that took Punjab to a sizeable total.
Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada bowled a spell of 3/36 against the Punjab Kings. Avesh Khan bowled a spell of 1 for 39 while Axar Patel was economical as ever bowling a spell of 1 for 21.
Delhi Capitals 167 for 3 (Dhawan 69*, Shaw 39) beat Punjab Kings 166 for 6 (Agarwal 99, Rabada 3-36) by seven wickets
Also Read: Twitter Salutes Mayank Agarwal’s Spectacular 99* Against Delhi Capitals