Punjab Kings stand-in captain Mayank Agarwal’s courageous innings went in vain as his team’s all-round depth proved not good enough to beat Delhi Capitals in Match 29 of the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
With PBKS missing the stability their first-choice skipper and opening batsman, KL Rahul, provides them, Mayank stepped up to the table admirably and scored a magnificent 99, not out off just 58 balls in the team score of 166/6.
It was an innings of two halves. Mayank first negotiated through the hiccups that PBKS faced in the upper half of their batting by playing anchor from an end and then opted for the attacking route targeting DC’s pacers in the latter stages.
Mayank’s resolute and resilient effort included 8 fours and 4 sixes but wasn’t enough to take PBKS to a more substantial total. None of the other PBKS batters were able to get going on the night against a competent DC attack, with debutant Dawid Malan (26) being the second-highest individual score.
Though Mayank’s lusty blows towards the end ruined their figures somewhat, DC pace trio Kagiso Rabada (3/36), Ishant Sharma (0/37) and Avesh Khan (1/39) performed very well in the initial phase of the innings, the kind DC required after winning the toss and asking PBKS to bat first in Ahmedabad.
DC spinners – Axar Patel (1/21) and Lalit Yadav (1/21) – hardly gave away a thing and controlled the middle-overs beautifully for their team. They were majorly responsible for PBKS not finding any sort of momentum in their batting effort outside of Mayank’s final flourish. Axar, especially, enhanced his reputation as one of the toughest contemporary IPL spinners to hit through the line.
In the run-chase, any hopes of a PBKS win were put to rest at the beginning only via an excellent 63-run opening partnership between DC’s Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan.
While Shaw blazed his willow for a quickfire 39 off 22 deliveries before he was dismissed, the more experienced Dhawan rallied along for most of the second half and made an unbeaten 69 off 47 balls.
Shaw’s innings only summed up the kind of devastating form he is in and put the helpless PBKS attack under extreme pressure, which they never recovered from. Dhawan, another in-form but slightly more sedate batsman, benefitted immensely from the energy with which his partner had batted.
No.3 Steve Smith (24) and skipper Rishabh Pant (11) didn’t quite get going, but Shimron Hetmyer smashed a cameo of 16 not out off just 4 deliveries to put a quick end to the proceedings, with more than two overs to spare and DC’s seven wickets intact.
Only left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar (1/19) put some leash on run-scoring, but the rest of the PBKS bowling line-up went for plenty. None of Riley Meredith (1/35), Mohammad Shami (0/37), Ravi Bishnoi (0/42) could boast of the spells their team needed after an inappropriate batting performance.
While DC clinched victory by seven wickets, it was Mayank who was chosen for the ‘Player of the Match’ award for being PBKS’ only hero with the bat.
With their victory, DC reached the top of the IPL 2021 points table with 6 wins and only 2 two losses in their 8 outings. The defeat meant that PBKS now languish in the lower half of the standings, having won 3 and lost 5 of their 8 matches.
Brief scores
Punjab Kings 166/6 in 20 overs (Mayank Agarwal 99*, Dawid Malan 26; Kagiso Rabada 3/36) lost to Delhi Capitals 167/3 in 17.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 69*, Prithvi Shaw 39; Harpreet Brar 1/19) by 7 wickets.
