Delhi Daredevils 197 for 8 (Iyer 96, Nair 30, Faulkner 2-39) beat Gujarat Lions 195 for 5 (Finch 69, Karthik 40) by two wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Shreyas Iyer scored heavily in the arc between point and fine third man © BCCI
Before Wednesday, Gujarat Lions had only won one match while batting first in the IPL, in 12 attempts. The last time they had played Delhi Daredevils, they had failed to defend 208. Now, sent in to bat, they made 195, and ended up on the losing side yet again, their bowling falling apart at critical moments.
Daredevils’ match-winner, yet again, came from their group of young, sometimes inconsistent, but undoubtedly gifted Indian batsmen. At the Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils had romped home with 15 balls to spare, after Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson added 143 in 63 balls.
Here, at Green Park, they had to pull off a different sort of big chase, where they kept losing wickets right through. Shreyas Iyer’s 96 was a different sort of innings to Pant’s 97. Daredevils were 15 for 2 at one point, and then 121 for 6 with only the lower order left to give Iyer company.
Then, out of the blue, came some of this season’s most exhilarating batting, as Iyer and Pat Cummins plundered 52 from three overs. Suddenly, Daredevils only needed 23 off 18 balls.
There would, of course, be some late tension. Cummins holed out when he may not have needed to hit in the air. Iyer fell in the last over, leaving Nos. 9 and 10 seven to get off four balls. Amit Mishra, though, kept his head, pulling off two ice-cool fours off successive balls to haul Delhi over the line with two balls to spare.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo