Punjab continued to win games from staging incredible comebacks and Delhi continued to lose games from winning positions in IPL 2019. A sensational bowling performance by Mohammad Shami and Sam Curran in death overs enabled Punjab to defend 166 runs and virtually 23 off 21 balls and register another stunning win.
Delhi death in the death overs
Delhi needed 23 runs off 21 balls when Shami castled Rishabh Pant. On the next ball Chris Morris was run-out for a first ball duck and then Sam Curran sent back Collin Ingram in the next over.
From there on, Delhi had no way of coming back and Sam Curran removed the tail with a hat-trick as Delhi was all-out for 152 runs. The visitors lost last seven wickets for just 8 runs in the span of three overs.
Top-order solid for Delhi
It was Delhi’s top-order that set the game for them after Prithvi Shaw was caught behind on the first ball of the innings against R Ashwin. First a critical partnership between Dhawan and Iyer and then Pant and Ingram kept Delhi ahead in the chase only for their middle-order to have an insane collapse in the death overs.
Miller and Mandeep give Punjab control
Earlier, Sam Curran was promoted up in the batting order by Punjab and he hammered 20 runs off 10 balls as an opener. Rahul had another failure while Mayank Agarwal was dismissed early as well.
Sarfaraz Khan showed his tremendous improvement as a batsman by scoring another gritty knock but he departed just when he looked set for a big one. Miller too failed to provide the finishing touches and was out in the 17th over after scoring 43 runs off 30 balls.
Mandeep Singh came to Punjab’s rescue as Morris and Rabada picked quick wickets in the death overs.
Mandeep’s 21-ball 29-run cameo enabled Punjab to get 166 runs which in the end proved to be a winning total.
