Amit Mishra wrecked the Punjab batting line-up, while Quinton de Kock batted gloriously as Delhi Daredevils defeated Kings XI Punjab at Feroz Shah Kotla by a margin of 8 wickets and more than 6 overs to spare

Zaheer Khan’s economical spell makes Punjab struggle

After watching Zaheer Khan bowl, most Indian fans would be wondering why did he retire so early. In his first spell, he bowled 3 overs, giving away just 8 runs and bowled a maiden to opener Manan Vohra. His stingy bowling in the initial overs put the Punjab batsmen under pressure, paving the perfect path to introduce spinners on a slow Feroz Shah Kotla track. The Delhi Daredevils owner chose Zak to lead their team and he is justifying their decision to the maximum extent. He came back in the 18th over to remove tailender Mohith Sharma and finished with figures of 4-1-14-1.

Amit Mishra wrecks Punjab batting

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, playing his 100th match in the tournament, continued his good run in the IPL, dismissing four Punjab batsmen in this match. His first victim was Australian Shaun Marsh with his very first ball, who tried to smash a delivery that deceived him in flight, beat the bat and de Kock did the rest behind the stumps. In his next over, it was David Miller’s turn to walk off the pitch, as he completely misread a googly from Mishra and tried to sweep it. The bat missed the ball, pads didn’t and was given out as it would have gone on to hit the leg stump partially. Although, the replays did show that the ball had partially pitched outside leg, which meant that Miller was a bit unlucky. As Miller departed on the first ball, Maxwell followed him on the fourth without troubling the scorers. Lofts a ball, straight into the hands of Brathwaite at long-off. His final victim was top scorer Manan Vohra, who top scored for Punjab with 32 off 24. A wonderful googly slipped in between his defence, right on to the leg stump. His final figures for the day were 3-0-11-4.

Shreyas Iyer departs early, de Kock and Samson get Delhi home

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Sandeep Sharma dismissed Delhi opener Shreyas Iyer quite early in the innings. But, Quinton de Kock and Sanju Samson played some quality cricket and registered Delhi’s first win in the tournament with 39 deliveries to spare. de Kock remained unbeaten on 59 off 42 balls and Samson scored a steady 33, facing 32 balls before getting dismissed just before Delhi won. All in all, it was a good win for Delhi and would boost up their confidence, which had seen a huge blow at Kolkata.