Delhi capitulates to Punjab onslaught

Our Correspondent

Shikhar Dhawan’s second consecutive IPL century went in vain as Delhi Capitals lost the match to Kings XI Punjab by 5 wickets at the Dubai International Stadium on October 20. Punjab completed a hat-trick of victories at IPL 2020 even as Dhawan created IPL history with his back-to-back centuries in the tournament.

Delhi, which won the toss and elected to bat, was restricted to 164 for five. Dhawan’s unbeaten 106 (61 balls) formed the bulk of the Delhi score while the remaining batsmen contributed only 54 runs.

Glen Maxwell’s (1-31) and Mohammed Shami’s (2-28) brilliant bowling flattened the Delhi assault, and no batsmen other than Dhawan could get going.

The target of 165 was too little for West Indians Chris Gayle (29 off 13 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (53 off 28) who powered Punjab’s chase. Gayle hit Tushar Deshpande for 26 runs in an over but then he was dismissed by R. Ashwin. Mayank Agarwal was run out in the same over. KXIP captain KL Rahul gave an easy catch to Daniel Sams off Axar Patel’s bowling. Maxwell (32 off 24) gave the finishing touches and the team won with one over remaining.

Punjab rose to the fifth spot in the table with 8 points and can now hope for a spot in the playoffs.