Axar, Miller keep DC alive in IPL with record chase

David Miller and captain Axar Patel engineered a record run chase for Delhi Capitals with their counterattacking knocks as the visitors upstaged Punjab Kings by three wickets to stay alive in the Indian Premier League here on Monday.

Aggressive knocks from Miller (51 off 28) and skipper Axar Patel (56 off 30) allowed Delhi Capitals to gun down 211 in 19 overs for the highest chase at the HPCA Stadium.   

Priyansh Arya hit half a dozen sixes in his whirlwind 33-ball 56 before Delhi Capitals pacers tweaked their lengths to limit Punjab Kings to 210 for five.

Having remained unbeaten in the first half of the tournament, Punjab Kings have now lost four in a row and need at least two wins from their remaining three games to make the play offs.

Barring Arshdeep Singh, the bowlers let the team down with their wayward display. 

However, the home team's bowlers did the job in the powerplay. Punjaj Kings struck thrice for the first time in the powerplay, leaving Delhi Capitals reeling at 47 for three in the first six overs.

Arshdeep Singh, who has been rather expensive this season, returned impressive figures of two for 21 in four overs.

It was Yash Thakur who provided the first breakthrough by casting Abhishek Porel with a ball that seamed back in from length to knock out the middle stump.

K L Rahul was caught at fine leg after mistiming a whip off Arshdeep. The young Sahil Parakh played a few impressive strokes in his brief stay before being crammed up for space by Arshdeep to be caught at short third man.

It became 74 for four with the run out of Tristan Stubbs extending the struggles of DC batters.

However, Miller (51 off 28) and Axar (56 off 30) brought life back into the game with their counterattacking 64-run stand off 34 balls.

Eventually, Ashutosh Sharma (24) and Madav Tiwari (18) came up with timely cameos to keep DC alive in the competition.

DC, struggling to stay alive in the tournament, opted to field in the first game of the season at the scenic venue here after making five changes to their side.

The ball generally flies off the bat in the high altitude of Dharamsala and that was very much evident in the first over of the game from Mitchell Starc, who proved rather expensive on the night.

Priyansh took the veteran Australian pacer to the cleaners in the over that went for 22 runs. His onslaught included a six square of the wicket on either side.

The southpaw not only dispatched Starc for a first ball six, he also meted out the same treatment to the wily Lungi Ngidi and Mukesh Kumar.

Starc understandably went full to search for the swing but DC pacers realised that bowling full was not the way go on this surface after conceding 51 runs from the first three overs.

Aquib Nabi was the man behind DC's comeback as he got the ball to seam from length, particularly making life tough for Priyansh in the second half of the powerplay.

Priyansh's opening partner, Prabhsimran Singh, did not have much rhythm in his 15-ball 18 before getting caught at fine leg off Mukesh.

Madhav Tiwari got his first wicket of the IPL by getting Priyansh caught at deep point in the ninth over.

Punjab Kings were off to a flyer but by the halfway mark they could only reach 107 for two in 10 overs.

Captain Shreyas Iyer (59 not out off 36) and Cooper Connolly (38 off 27) shared 83 off 52 balls for the third wicket but they were not able to change gears as swiftly as they would have liked.  

In the 19th over, Starc got rid of Marcus Stoinis and Shashank Singh off successive balls before Suryansh Shedge hit a couple of breathtaking sixes off the high-profile speedster.

Ngidi bowled a brilliant final over to ensure the Punjab Kings don't push beyond 210.