First game of the season at home for Delhi Daredevils and yet they failed to capitalize on their home advantages. They now lie at the bottom of the table with only one win from six matches while their opponents—Kings XI Punjab enjoy their winning streak at the opposite side of the rankings with five wins from as many games.

Winning the toss Delhi invited KXIP to bat first. Punjab then spluttered to 143/8 in 20 overs.

A 34-run innings from Shreyas Iyer along with 20-odd runs coming from each of Lokesh Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Ravichandran Ashwin’s bat tried to keep the visitors’ innings together.

Liam Plunkett ripped apart KXIP’s batting line-up and took 3 scalps under his belt. Trent Boult and Avesh Khan also took two wickets each while Danierl Christian picked up one.

The home-side’s batting was no different from their opponents’. They kept losing at regular intervals while Sherays Iyer stood firm at the other end. Prithvi Shaw and Rahul Tewatia registered 22 and 24 runs respectively while the other batsmen failed to make their marks.

DD lost eight wickets in an attempt to chase down the puny target. Iyer was the last batsman sent back to the hut in the last over. He picked up a crucial half-century and tried to lift the total past the target but stopped at 57 runs as Delhi eventually lost the match by 4 runs.

Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot and Andrew Tye bagged two wickets apiece. Barinder Sran Rahman also got one wicket to his name.

Delhi Daredevils will take on Kolkata Knight Riders on April 27. On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab will lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 26.

 

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