IPL24: Kuldeep , Debutant shines as Delhi Capitals jolt LSG in their backyard

  After losing two consecutive matches, Rishabh Pant's team Delhi Capitals saw the face of victory again.  They defeated Lucknow Super Giant by 6 wickets at Ekana Stadium on Friday.  Young Aussie cricketer Jake Fraser-McGurk contributed to Delhi's win with a fine aggressive kmock .  Pant himself gave a worthy accompaniment.  Ayush Badoni's struggle in Lucknow was in vain as Kuldeep rattled the LSG middle order .  Lucknow lost the first match at home this time.

 Prithvi Shaw started well for Delhi.  The Indian opener kept playing some glorious shots including a sumptuous straight drive .  But David Warner (8) on the opposite side was out unfortunately .  Yash Thakur's ball hits his pads and trickled down the stumps.  Warner looked disappointed.  Fraser hit Thakur for a six off the second ball over long on . He paired with Prithvi and started scoring runs quickly.

 Prithvi returned at the head of the team with 63 runs. He scored a sparkling 32 runs off 22 balls.  After the fall of the second wicket, Delhi could not be stopped.  Barring two overs in between, Delhi's run rate was good.  Fraser hit Krunal Pandya for three consecutive sixes in the 13th over.  21 runs came from that over and 15 runs from Krunal's previous over.

 Fraser (55)  completed his blazing  fifty in the 14th over.  He got out in the next over.  Naveen Ul Haq's ball was hit high and was  caught by Arshad Khan which broke Frazier's rapid stand of 77 runs with Pant who was playing well and played some breathtaking shots that went for 6 .  In the 16th over, Pant came forward to hit Ravi Bishnoi.  KL Rahul stumped him.  Pant scored an impressive 41 off 24 balls with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes.  Pant's dismissal did not stop Delhi's victory. At the end   Shai Hope (11*) and Tristan Stubbs (15*) closed out Delhi's win with ease by 6 wickets  . For Lucknow Bishnoi (2/25) was the most successful bowler for LSG .

Earlier batting first, Lucknow started well.  Quinton de Kock hit a four off the first ball.  10 runs were scored in that over.  De Kock was playing exactly the way he needed to start in the power play.  But could not keep the same rhythm for long.  He was adjudged LBW by Khalil Ahmed in the third over.  After that Lucknow wickets fell regularly , the batters came and went one by one.

 Devdutt Padikkal (3) could not return to form in this match as well as he was lbw to Khaleel .  Then Kuldeep playing his 1st match for a while got into the act  Marcus Stoinis (8), Nicholas Pooran (0) and  Deepak Hooda (10), Krunal Pandya (3) fell in quick succession.  They did not find the answer to Kuldeep's bowling.  Lucknow's pitch is already known to be quite slow and helps the spinners.   But it was not easy to get runs on the pitch that was played on Friday.  KL Rahul fought.  Scored a sparkling 39 off 22 balls with the help of 5 fours and 1 six.

 However in the end, no one could have thought that Badoni would play such a fine knock .  At the time he came to bat, Lucknow was reeling with the loss of six wickets.  They lost seven wickets for 94 when Krunal returned after a while. At this stage the captaincy of Pant was dissappointing as he allowed the LSG batters easy singles by not keeping fielders more closer . From here Badoni fought alone with Arshad Khan and played some sparkling shots .  Prithvi Shaw dropped an easy catch of Arshad in the 18th over.  In the end, Badoni (55*) remained unbeaten with Arshad (20*) with half a century but ultimately it was in vain .  

 Kuldeep played his last match against Rajasthan on March 28.  Delhi missed him for several matches due to injury.  The left handed Chinaman spinner contributed on his return to the team with skilful bowling specially the way he foxed the dangerous Pooran with a googly that rattled his stumps . Kuldeep was the player of the match as Delhi won by 6 wickets with 11 balls left .

With this victory , Delhi Capitals now has moved to the ninth spot in the points table with 4 points  while RCB is now pushed to 10th spot