IPL24: Punjab Kings beats rusty Capitals, Curran , Livingstone shines

 



Returning to cricket after  15 months , Rishabh Pant did not get off to a winning  start.  His team lost to Shikhar Dhawan's Punjab Kings in their first match in IPL.  Batting first, Delhi scored a challenging  174 runs after initial struggles .  Punjab won by chasing that target after few hiccups .  They started the IPL with a win at their new home ground.



 Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and decided to bowl first.  However, going against his plan, two Delhi openers David Warner and Mitchell Marsh started well .  The two Australians were playing big shots from the start.  They were using the power play wonderfully.  35 runs were plundered  in the first 3 overs. Warner hit some scorching drives and Marsh hit glorious sixes off pull shot and straight down the ground hits . Arshdeep Singh gave Delhi the first blow.  He dismissed Marsh for 20 runs being caught at cover .


 Although Marsh was out, Warner was making quick runs along with Shai Hope who batted  at number three.  Harshal Patel gave Delhi the second blow.  He dismissed Warner after he scored  29 sparkling runs.  Hope after a slow start batted well for 33 runs that included a couple of glorious sixes .  Pant stepped in to bat after Warner was dismissed.  As long as he was at the crease, there didn't seem to be any problems.  There was no problem with leaning shots or running.  He hit two fours.  Pant was dismissed by Harshal after scoring 18 runs . He got out trying to chip a shot over cover.  


After Pant dismissal  Delhi batting slumped .  Ricky Vui, Tristan Stubbs were dismissed cheaply .  Akshar Patel scored 21 runs and looked promising for a while till he was runout .  After his dismissal, Delhi were forced to introduce Abhishek as an impact player.  That decision worked.  He scored a blistering 32 runs in a 10-ball innings.  He hit four boundaries and two sixes.  The Bengal left-handed wicketkeeper batsman hit Harshal with three fours and two sixes in the last over as 25 runs were plundered .  It was due to Porel that Delhi finally reached a place to fight.


 Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow, the two openers of Punjab started batting aggressively to chase the runs.  17 runs came in the first over.  They were hitting  big shots.  Dhawan, who has been out of the national team for a long time, looked fluent.  Ishant Sharma gave Punjab the first shock.  He bowled Dhawan for 22 runs.  Ishant ran out Bairstow (9) in that over after the ball off a drive from Prabsimran hit his hands & struck the stumps with Bairstow out of the crease . However Ishant was injured soon after and left the field limping .  He has to get up after bowling 2 overs.  Without Ishant, Delhi are in trouble.


Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Prabhasimran Singh (26) and Jitesh Sharma (9 - stumped ) when he came to bowl.  However, Punjab had no problem in winning.  Two foreigners Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone led the team to victory by playing some explosive shots .  The rest of Delhi's bowlers failed to make the mark.  Especially Khalil Ahmed and Mitchell Marsh gave a lot of runs.  Curran scored a superb half century.  He got out after scoring a glorious 63 runs off 47 balls.  In the end, Punjab won the match by 4 wickets.  Livingstone remained unbeaten on 38 runs that included some typically lusty 6s

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