IPL 2017 | Delhi dent Pune’s playoff hopes

05/12/2017

Delhi Daredevils played the role of party poopers to perfection as they dented Rising Pune Supergiant’s hopes of making the playoffs with a 7-run victory at the Ferozshah Kotla. Karun Nair scored a brilliant 64 for DD to propel them to 168/8, before Manoj Tiwary’s fighting 60 went in vain for Pune.

Brief Scores: Delhi Daredevils 168/8 (Karun Nair 64, Rishabh Pant 36; Jaydev Unadkat 2/29, Ben Stokes 2/31) beat Rising Pune Supergiant 161/7 (Manoj Tiwary 64, Steve Smith 38; Zaheer Khan 2/25, Mohammad Shami 2/37) by 7 runs.

Playing for pride, Zaheer Khan won the toss for Delhi and chose to bat first. The Daredevils replaced Carlos Brathwaite with Shahbaz Nadeem with Zaheer claiming that an extra spinner could come in handy. Meanwhile, Steve Smith conceded that he, too, would have chosen to bat first, and announced that Pune had replaced the departed Imran Tahir with Adam Zampa.

Delhi recover well after Samson-Iyer disappoint

Delhi knew that they needed to get off to a good start at the top of the innings to set Pune a defendable score at the Kotla, but they got anything but that. Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer were back in the dressing room within the first three overs as the home side were left reeling at 11/2. Karun Nair, who has had a mediocre IPL 2017 so far, was quick to up his ante as he took the responsibility of anchoring the innings, and along with Rishabh Pant scored an incredible 43 runs in the next three overs to take Delhi to a respectable score of 54/2 at the end of the powerplay. But just when things had started to look good for the home side, Adam Zampa came to Pune’s rescue and broke the 74-run partnership, to bring the visitors back in the game. At the halfway stage of their innings, Delhi had managed 85/3.

Nair guides Delhi to fighting total

Pune managed to silence things for Delhi Daredevils before Marlon Samuels took on Shardul Thakur to up the run rate as he scored two consecutive sixes in the 12th over. When Nair and Samuels decided to take the aerial route, MS Dhoni did what he does best behind the stumps. First, when he took a one-handed catch to dismiss Samuels for 27 runs off the last delivery of Dan Christian’s over and then followed it up by sending Corey Anderson back to the hut with a quick stumping. Nair was looking set to dominate the death overs, but Ben Stokes pulled off a worldie to send the youngster back to the pavilion after well made 64 off 45 in the 19th over. The tail managed to contribute a mere 26 runs in totality as Jaydev Unadkat bowled a brilliant last over, giving away just five runs to restrict Delhi Daredevils to a score of 168 off their allotted 20 overs.

Steve Smith takes charge

Chasing a potentially tricky total, Pune got off to the worst possible start as Ajinkya Rahane was cleaned up off the very first ball by a vintage Zaheer Khan inswinger. Steve Smith joined Rahul Tripathi at the crease and the duo signalled their intent early by picking up a boundary a piece to give the Pune fans hope. Zaheer decided to introduce spin as early as the fourth over of the game, but it proved to be the wrong decision as the Delhi lad leaked 14 runs in the over. The Delhi captain made amends in the next over by dismissing Tripathi but at the end of the powerplay, Pune found themselves at a comfortable 53/2. With the field spread out, not only did Delhi restrict Pune to just 25 runs off the next four overs, Nadeem also got the all-important wicket of Steve Smith as well. Pune found themselves needing 91 runs at the midway point of the innings to secure a place in the playoffs.

Manoj Tiwary raises Pune’s hopes before falling agonizingly short

Though Delhi managed to stem the run flow in the next few overs, Pune were always the favorites as long as Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwary stayed at the crease. The duo did not let their side down as they stitched together an important 51 run partnership to put Pune in control before the Englishman was dismissed by Shami. Needing 43 off the last four overs, Pune appeared to be in complete control with Dhoni and Tiwary at the crease. But that is when disaster struck as Dhoni and his successor Dan Christian were dismissed both dismissed in the space of six deliveries to hand Delhi the initiative. Tiwary gave the visitors hope in the last over, chasing 25, with two sixes off the first two balls, but it proved to be in vain as Cummins conceded just five more runs off the remaining four balls to secure a seven-run win for the home side. The result now means that the Pune-Punjab game will be an effective one off match for a playoff position.