Brief Scores: Kings XI Punjab 163/7 (Chris Gayle 69, Mandeep Singh 30; Sandeep Lamichhane 3/40, Axar Patel 2/22) lost to Delhi Capitals 166/5 (Shreyas Iyer 58*, Shikhar Dhawan 56; Hardus Viljoen 2/39, Mohammed Shami 1/21) by five wickets

After the departure of KL Rahul, someone had to take up the responsibility of scoring the runs for Kings XI Punjab and Chris Gayle stepped up to the task. He first scored 10 runs off Ishant Sharma’s over, who bowled a brilliant first over, and then smashed Lamichhane for 16 runs. Shreyas Iyer quickly brought on Kagiso Rabada to counter Chris Gayle, but it was Mayank Agarwal who faced him and was dismissed by the end of the over.

In came David Miller but perished quickly. But thankfully, Mandeep Singh formed a small but important partnership with Chris Gayle to stabilize the innings. Gayle continued his onslaught on the spinners and as a result of this, he reached his half-century in just 25 balls with a 200 strike-rate.

After the Gaylestorm was over, normalcy resumed in Delhi. Mandeep Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin took singles and doubles to keep the scoreboard ticking but once Axar Patel, with the help of Rishabh Pant, sent the former packing, the home team started becoming favourites. Harpreet Brar was alert to the task and in the company of his skipper, he tried to forge a good partnership. When Ashwin was dismissed Punjab were already into the 20th over and they eventually ended with 163 which can be considered as a par score at the Kotla.

The Delhi openers, Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan had a solid start to the run chase. Even though they scored only 1 run in the first over bowled by Mohammed Shami they scored 23 off the next two overs. But disaster struck. Due to the poor communication between Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw got run-out, courtesy a brilliant direct throw from Mandeep Singh.

Rishabh Pant had a huge role to play as he had to ensure Delhi didn’t suffer the normal collapse that has characterized their batting order this season. However, Pant was in no mood to take up the responsibility and despite the wicket being conducive to his style of batting, he threw it away. Iyer, on the other hand, was calm and composed and was determined enough not to throw in the towel. He found an able support in the form of Colin Ingram as Delhi looked set to win the encounter.

As has been the case for most parts of Delhi’s campaign this year, the chance of a collapse was never ruled out and it seemed very much possible when Colin Ingram failed to save himself from Mohammd Shami and was dismissed for 19. Still it was Delhi’s game to lose, but Axar Patel found himself running on the same line where Shami was standing, and the duo clashed there which reduced Patel’s momentum. KL Rahul instantly ran Axar out and even though he shared his displeasure over the incident on his way back to the dug-out, Delhi were in real danger as the team still needed eight runs off eight balls.