A sparkling century by David Warner (107 not out off 69 balls), the second in this edition of the IPL, helped Delhi to a total of 177 for four. He was ably supported by Collingwood (53 off 45), included in the side at the expense of an off-color AB DeVillers.Ishant Sharma yet again proved expensive, going for as many as 17 runs in the solitary over that he bowled. I fail to understand, why so much of confidence is shown in this lad both by the national selectors and KKR team management. Thankfully, he has been rested for the T20 World Cup. Indeed, he needs a break, applying the same logic,as was the case with Irfan Pathan. At least, Pathan had valuable batting abilitites. He can bat anywhere in the order, irrespective of the version of the game.(Remember? He has opened in test matches too.). It is a mistake to ignore him for the T20 World Cup, but we would discuss that separately.
In the current match, KKR while chasing 178 to win, struggled all the while on a progressively slower pitch, and eventually managed just 137 in their allotted 20 overs, falling short by a huge margin of 40 runs. Chris Gayle, with 30 was their highest scorer.
This was a very important victory for the Delhi Dare Devils, who needed this victory to overtake the KKR, as hitherto both these teams had similar fate in this tournament. Both of them had won their opening two matches, lost the next three and then won one each in the run up to this encounter.
Delhi can drive home the advantage of this win, if they keep up the good work hereafter.
No comments:
Post a Comment