Match review: DD vs KXIP

23 April

Tagline: OId is Gold!!!  “Purana qila” breaks the “Naya Deewar” records

 

BiggestSixes in IPL4 happened in DD vs KXIP Match David Hussey 106m Shaun Marsh 105m  Venugopal Rao 97m	Score: Delhi batted first Delhi Daredevils 231/4 Kings Xi Punjab 202/6
	3 Awesome innings in DD vs KXIP Sehwag scored 77 (35) Warner scored 77 (48) Marsh scored 95 (42)

These were just some staggering numbers of the Match. But this match was beyond all that. It was initially about fighting spirit of Delhi Daredevils who were rock down the table. And then later in match it was the fighting spirit of Shaun Marsh and Gilchrist of Kings XI Punjab against the seemingly impossible total.

Initially Delhi started great guns. Sehwag and Warner recreated the opening magic and at one point of time 91 of 8 overs without a wicket. They went on to make 116 in 10 overs. Finally Sehwag lost his wicket at 146 to Hussey and Warner 2 overs later lost it to Kumar. Damage was already done by then as Delhi were 161 already. Nagar and Finch came but fell fast in going with the momentum. Then Venu and Ojha finished it up brilliantly.

Sehwag's 77(35) had 8 fours and 4 sixes while Warner 77(48) 11 boundaries and four sixes. Venugopal Rao 28* (15) and Naman Ojha 19* (8) played  big shots in the end overs to ramp up the already high run-rate.

Harris, Praveen or no bowler could do the trick against this batting line up which just clicked when they most wanted against the strongest opponent to gain them the confidence that they can beat anyone. I read articles yesterday on poor contribution of Sehwag in T20 overall and Delhi Daredevils specifically. All these question were just answered with one master stroke of innings.

Chasing the Almost impossible 231 Kings started decently. 3 overs 25 but then an good wicket maiden by Irfan Pathan Got the most explosive Paul Velathi as he looked to hit it out. He was caught by Nagar on a lofted shot. On the other end Gilchrist was facing problems with Morkel as they played him silently. In the 6 th over run-rate was just 6.2 because of Morney Morkel’s brilliance and Paul’s wicket.

Then Gilchrist faced most of the balls hitting trade-mark yet careful shots till then to make 45. When ever they got a chance Marsh and Gilchrist hit one bounce fours and sixes. They went on to make 95 in 10 overs. Only then Giichrist misgauged a angled ball to lose his valuable wicket to young Varun Aaron. Though Varun went for runs in his initial over he came back strongly to claim Adam’s wicket.  (He is ex-ICL players with4 wickets in 8 matches).

If one has lost hope on Kings as David Hussey who came after then hadn’t played too many balls, he proved all of them wrong. In order to keep up the asking rate of over 12 rpo he hit Agarkar and Aaron out James Hopes of the park for biggest six of 106 m. The next bal he tried something similar but couldn’t middle the ball and it was catch neat the boundary. Marsh Still didn't lose hope or let anyone loose hope. Lofted cover drivers, mindless shots on short balls and  of length balls everything went out of the park or to the boundaries.

Marsh saw Dinesh Karthik get out on the other end for irresponsible shot played in haste of making runs. Sehwag caught it perfectly. He did not give even yet. He hit competing 6 in length just one meter lower in length than his fellow Hussey, 105m. Abhishek Nayar on the other end got a life when a loften shot when the ball landed between players. Pressure build on as he couldn’t do much later in Agarkar’s over which was the golden chance. This brough the equation to 56 in 3 overs. Morkel who one boundary in the effort of taking the aeriel root went for lofted shot again. Third one in this innings caught again by Sehwag himself. In the end Nayar got Kings past 200 with his 18 in 13 balls.

I wonder what happened to slight green layer on the pitch that was supposed to help seamers. May be it just got churned away by the burning desire of Sehwag and Warner to win it for their team. Neither was  Marsh effected by it in an innings which I would rate one of the best in the chases. 95(42) when wickets were falling on the other end definitely deserved a century. He like his other team mates fell for the increasing run-rate which went beyond them. James Hopes and Morkel bowled decently on Delhi Side and that made the difference between the winnings and loosing side.

Am definitely watching all Kings XI and Delhi Daredevils matches from now. For it was just a treat watching the three gem of an innings.

 

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