Our 4th match of the campaign was played against KXIP. Only one change was made to the starting XI from the match against KKR - Avesh Khan was brought in place of Amit Mishra.
Facing Kings XI Punjab in their own den with both teams in good form meant lots of fireworks. We won the toss and chose to field.
KL Rahul and Sam Curran came out to bat for the hosts at the jam-packed IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Morris gave us a fantastic start and sent the dangerous Rahul back to the hut for the just 15.
Sam Curran was looking good, but our Sandeep Lamichhane got him out LBW in the 4th over. Shikhar's alertness in the field meant the end of Mayank Agarwal in the 8th over.
Sarfaraz Khan hit a drive straight towards Dhawan, who was fielding at cover. Our Delhi boy was aware of the fact that Agarwal was backing a lot at the non-strikers end. He hit a brilliant direct hit and got us a breakthrough out of the blue. The Kings XI were 58/3 at this stage after 7.1 overs.
Miller walked to the crease and steadied the ship for the hosts along with Khan. Lamichhane got the well-settled Khan out for 39 with an excellent delivery in the 14th over and finished with the figures 2/27 in 4 overs. Sarfaraz tried to drive the ball on the up but all he could manage was a fine edge to Pant - who made no mistake.
The Punjab-based franchise were still cruising, and it seemed like they would get to 180. However, our bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict the opposition to 166.
Chris Morris dismissed Miller for 43. He bowled a brilliantly disguised off cutter and foxed the southpaw who only manage to top edge it. Pant took the catch.
Wickets came quick and easy after that. We got 4 wickets and conceded 25 runs in the last 3 overs.
Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan came out to bat for us. We did not get off to an ideal start as Ravichandran Ashwin got Shaw out caught behind on the very first ball.
However, our skipper Iyer and Dhawan set the ship sailing for us. We reached 50 in 6.2 overs. Both the batsmen batted smartly and rotated the strike well. They also kept finding the boundaries and the scoreboard kept ticking swiftly.
We were doing exceptionally well at this stage, but the partnership was broken by Viljoen in the 8th over. Iyer attempted to drive the ball but he could only but get an inside edge which crashed into the middle stump. Pant came in to bat at number 4.
Shikhar was also back in the hut soon after. Our southpaw was foxed by a carrom ball from Ravichandran Ashwin in the 10th over and Ingram walked out to the crease.
Pant was at his explosive best and Ingram was downright shrewd. They took the attack to the opposition and put us in a comfortable position. We needed just 23 runs from 21 deliveries but there was a huge twist in the tale.
Shami bowled Pant for 39 and Chris Morris was run-out on the very next delivery.
The well-set Ingram was dismissed by Sam Curran in the 18th over. Harshal Patel walked out to the middle but was caught behind without troubling the scoreline. The tension was palpable now.
Vihari was on strike in the penultimate over. He played two dots and swung hard at Shami's length ball. Unluckily for us, he missed completely and the ball crashed into the stumps.
Suddenly, 15 runs were needed off the last over with just 2 wickets in hand and Rabada on strike. Sam Curran bowled our speedster on the first ball and Sandeep Lamichhane had the same fate on the next delivery. The English all-rounder got a hat-trick as he had got a wicket off the last delivery of his previous over. We lost the last 7 wickets for just 8 runs.
It is a defeat which will be tough to digest but there is still a long way to go in the tournament. The loss puts us at the 5th position in the IPL table - with 2 wins and 2 losses. We win some games, and we learn from some. There will certainly be a lot our boys will learn from this one.
We square off against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at Qila Kotla in our next game of the campaign. Our boys will be looking to work extra hard to win this match at home and bounce back after the disappointing defeat to KXIP.
Our 4th match of the campaign was played against KXIP. Only one change was made to the starting XI from the match against KKR - Avesh Khan was brought in place of Amit Mishra.
Facing Kings XI Punjab in their own den with both teams in good form meant lots of fireworks. We won the toss and chose to field.
KL Rahul and Sam Curran came out to bat for the hosts at the jam-packed IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Morris gave us a fantastic start and sent the dangerous Rahul back to the hut for the just 15.
Sam Curran was looking good, but our Sandeep Lamichhane got him out LBW in the 4th over. Shikhar's alertness in the field meant the end of Mayank Agarwal in the 8th over.
Sarfaraz Khan hit a drive straight towards Dhawan, who was fielding at cover. Our Delhi boy was aware of the fact that Agarwal was backing a lot at the non-strikers end. He hit a brilliant direct hit and got us a breakthrough out of the blue. The Kings XI were 58/3 at this stage after 7.1 overs.
Miller walked to the crease and steadied the ship for the hosts along with Khan. Lamichhane got the well-settled Khan out for 39 with an excellent delivery in the 14th over and finished with the figures 2/27 in 4 overs. Sarfaraz tried to drive the ball on the up but all he could manage was a fine edge to Pant - who made no mistake.
The Punjab-based franchise were still cruising, and it seemed like they would get to 180. However, our bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict the opposition to 166.
Chris Morris dismissed Miller for 43. He bowled a brilliantly disguised off cutter and foxed the southpaw who only manage to top edge it. Pant took the catch.
Wickets came quick and easy after that. We got 4 wickets and conceded 25 runs in the last 3 overs.
Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan came out to bat for us. We did not get off to an ideal start as Ravichandran Ashwin got Shaw out caught behind on the very first ball.
However, our skipper Iyer and Dhawan set the ship sailing for us. We reached 50 in 6.2 overs. Both the batsmen batted smartly and rotated the strike well. They also kept finding the boundaries and the scoreboard kept ticking swiftly.
We were doing exceptionally well at this stage, but the partnership was broken by Viljoen in the 8th over. Iyer attempted to drive the ball but he could only but get an inside edge which crashed into the middle stump. Pant came in to bat at number 4.
Shikhar was also back in the hut soon after. Our southpaw was foxed by a carrom ball from Ravichandran Ashwin in the 10th over and Ingram walked out to the crease.
Pant was at his explosive best and Ingram was downright shrewd. They took the attack to the opposition and put us in a comfortable position. We needed just 23 runs from 21 deliveries but there was a huge twist in the tale.
Shami bowled Pant for 39 and Chris Morris was run-out on the very next delivery.
The well-set Ingram was dismissed by Sam Curran in the 18th over. Harshal Patel walked out to the middle but was caught behind without troubling the scoreline. The tension was palpable now.
Vihari was on strike in the penultimate over. He played two dots and swung hard at Shami's length ball. Unluckily for us, he missed completely and the ball crashed into the stumps.
Suddenly, 15 runs were needed off the last over with just 2 wickets in hand and Rabada on strike. Sam Curran bowled our speedster on the first ball and Sandeep Lamichhane had the same fate on the next delivery. The English all-rounder got a hat-trick as he had got a wicket off the last delivery of his previous over. We lost the last 7 wickets for just 8 runs.
It is a defeat which will be tough to digest but there is still a long way to go in the tournament. The loss puts us at the 5th position in the IPL table - with 2 wins and 2 losses. We win some games, and we learn from some. There will certainly be a lot our boys will learn from this one.
We square off against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at Qila Kotla in our next game of the campaign. Our boys will be looking to work extra hard to win this match at home and bounce back after the disappointing defeat to KXIP.
