Delhi Daredevils have come across as a resilient unit. They seem to have learnt to take every good or bad thing in their stride and learn from them.
They went through heartbreaking loses in the initial part of the tournament and were even crushed by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous match. But, like they learnt from those close losses to turn some in their favour, they also learnt from the thrashing and turned the heat on against the Kings XI Punjab on Friday to revive their campaign.
It was a game between two struggling sides itching to bring their flagging campaign back on track and Daredevils succeeded in trumping the Kings XI with a nine wicket victory at the Ferozeshah Kotla, where they were playing last home game of the season.
Daredevils got a booster shot in their arms when Zaheer Khan returned to the team after missing half of the season due to injury. His inclusion provided experience at the top of the bowling order that was hitherto missing for Daredevils. The home bowling attack led by Zaheer blew away KXIP top-order to restrict them to 118 for 8 before their batsmen smashing past the target in just 13.5 overs at the loss of one wicket.
Zak is back
Kotla is a ground for chasers and Daredevils captain JP Duminy wasted no time to invite Kings XI to bat first after winning the toss. The decision could also be influenced by the inclusion of Zaheer, who finally made an appearance for Daredevils after missing almost a year of competitive cricket due to back injury. He didn’t look fully fit, running in gingerly and bowling on half tilt. But, given the options Daredevils have, even half-fit Zaheer was a better choice, as the southpaw proved with two wickets in the first two overs.
His first scalp was home boy playing for the guest team Virender Sehwag. The pitch was on the slower side with a bit of variable bounce and Sehwag isn’t known for reading too much into the pitch. There was even a warning sign for him on the first ball that gripped a bit. Sehwag mistimed his drive and the ball spooned over the cover-point fielder into the safe zone. Sehwag ran two but theumpire called one short.
Next ball, Zaheer kept it closer to the stumps, ball once again gripped the pitch and Sehwag pushed forward a bit too hard and early. Another outside edge but this time it went straight to the cover-point fielder; it was a low catch and Angelo Mathews took it well.
Zaheer then eked out an edge from Manan Vohra in the next over. Vohra charged down the wicket to bring KXIP out of trouble but Zaheer banged in short cramping the charging batsman for space as the ball took outside edge before landing in wicketkeeper’s gloves.
On both sides of his two successful overs, Duminy and Nathan Coulter-Nile took a wicket each - Shaun Marsh and Wriddhiman Saha respectively — to reduce KXIP to 10 for 4.
KXIP, last year’s runners-up, were off to a chaotic start but that wasn’t surprising. They have faced problems with the top-order this season.
KXIP captain George Bailey (18) and David Miller (42), their most successful batsmen so far, threatened DD with a budding partnership but that also proved short-lived. Bailey perished while attempting a sweep against Amit Mishra.
If there was some semblance to KXIP innings that came through the partnership between Miller and Axar Patel, who added 57 runs to give their bowlers something to bowl at. Coulter-Nile (4 for 20) had them both to get the figures that would bring him Man of the Match award.
For Daredevils, openers Shreyas Iyer (54) and Mayank Agarwal (52 not out) sealed the match in their favour with a 106-run stand. They looked good to finish the match but Iyer got out eight balls before a wide from Patel would end the game for Kings XI Punjab.
With this win, Daredevils are now fourth in points table with 8 points and have revived their chances of making it to the knockout round. For KXIP, the going gets a lot tougher from here as they have entered a zone where they will have to win every match now.
Brief Score
Kings XI Punjab: 118/8 in 20 overs (David Miller 42; Nathan Coulter-Nile 4/20, Zaheer Khan 2/17) lose to Delhi Daredevils: 119/1 in 13.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 54, Mayank Agarwal 52*) by 9 wickets with 37 balls remaining.