IPL 2016: Gujarat Lions tame Delhi despite Morris' madness

Brief Scores: Gujarat Lions 172/6 in 20 overs (Brendon McCullum 60(36), Dwayne Smith 53(30); Imran Tahir 3/24, Chris Morris 2/35) lost to Delhi Daredevils 171/5 in 20 overs (Chris Morris 82(32), JP Duminy 48(43); Dhawal Kulkarni 3/19, James Faulkner 1/23)

Delhi's opening combination has struggled to provide them with a good start so far this season. 24, 9, 11, 11 – these were the four opening stands they have had so far, and it does not make for a good reading. There was no anomaly tonight as well as Quinton de Kock's third opening partner in five innings – Sanju Samson – was dismissed with just two runs on the board.

Dhawal Kulkarni, like he did against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab, provided his team with an early breakthrough. The 27-year-old managed to extract late swing in the air – something which played a big part in Samson miscuing his shot. He dismissed the inform Quinton de Kock with a slower delivery, and an embarrassingly poor delivery on Karun Nair's pad got him his third wicket.

At 16/3, Delhi were in tatters, and Rishabh Pant - an 18-year-old making his IPL debut – and JP Duminy – who showed signs of returning to form against the Mumbai Indians – joined together to take the team out of the woods. The duo stabilized the innings with a 41-run partnership, but at the end of the 10th over the required run rate had risen to 12.20.

The match looked over for Delhi when Pant was dismissed by Faulkner, but it was as though the wicket broke something within Duminy at the other end. The diminutive South African went blitzkrieg, with a fierceness one, does not associate with a man of his stature, and he had a colossus in Chris Morris at the other end.

Morris was batting for the first time in the tournament, and after this innings probably the question would be, “why?”. The Pretoria's behemoth pummelled five sixes in his first 13 balls as he took James Faulkner and Pravin Tambe to the cleaners. From 58/4 in 11 overs, Delhi went to 116/4 in 15 overs, and all of a sudden the Feroz Shah Kotla crowd realized that they were witnessing something special.

Suresh Raina was forced to put his thinking cap on, and after all the years deputing MS Dhoni at CSK, one would expect him pick up some of this traits. Dhoni often gambles with the unknown when the conventional route fails. Raina did the same, he brought on Dwayne Smith into the action, and it failed spectacularly. Morris hit the West Indian for three consecutive sixes, each bigger than the previous one, and completed the fastest fifty this season in the IPL.

Duminy was dismissed in the first delivery of the 18th over, but that turned out to be a small ripple in the tsunami-like wave Morris had created, with Gujarat destined to sink.

Praveen Kumar bowled a tight penultimate over where he conceded just four runs, and Delhi were left to chase 14 runs off the last over. However, just like many South Africans before him, Morris stumbled in the final stage. He failed to get the big shots in the final five deliveries off Dwayne Bravo, and Delhi fell 1 run short of the Gujarat's score.

“We decided after our first game, that we will chase whenever possible,” said Zaheer Khan after the toss. That first game saw Kolkata Knight Riders bundle Delhi Daredevils for 98. Lesson well learnt for Zak you would think. But, he would soon want to unlearn the lesson as he was sent to the boundary four times by the Lions opener Dwayne Smith in an 18-run first over. Brendon McCullum joined the party in the third over, punishing Zaheer for two maximums as the Delhi captain conceded 32 runs in his first 2 overs. If that was bad for DD, it was going to get more ominous soon.

The Lions reached the fifty-mark in the fourth over, the fastest of the season. It was only a matter of time, one thought, before the more-experienced spinners were called up. But Zaheer insisted on sticking with pace, and by the time he finally saw sense after seven overs, the batsmen were set. McCullum soon reached his 50 off only 27 balls. Smith wasn’t to stay behind as he brought up his 50, taking one ball lesser.

But with the field spread out and the bowlers taking the pace off the ball, the run rate started to stall slightly. That was the opportunity for Imran Tahir. He rushed in a flipper to Smith, who never picked the line, to trap him in front of the stumps. After 3 overs of spin, Zaheer decided to mix it up and brought Chris Morris into the attack. A slower full toss left McCullum castled and skipper Suresh Raina came in, but his stint was cut short by Morris in the same over in typical Raina fashion. Short ball, dance down the pitch, mistime the ball, find fielder, walk back.

Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Karthik were left to rebuild the innings, but from a score of 100 in 9 overs, Gujarat Lions only reached 128 in 14 overs. Wickets continued to tumble as Delhi looked firmly in command for the first time in the match. In the end, Faulkner and Bravo took the Lions to 172, making only 62 runs in the last ten overs.