Hello and welcome to Sportstar 's live coverage of Saturday's Indian Premier League (IPL 2019) encounter between Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi.
Delhi rode on half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer to register a five-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab. For Punjab, Viljoen was the pick of the bowlers with figures of two for 39.
Sam Curran to bowl the final over. And Shreyas Iyer sees his team through with a fine half-century.
Fifty up for Iyer. Shami returns for his last over and cleans up Ingram for a 9-ball 19. Axar Patel is the new man in. And he departs without troubling the scorers . Sherfane Rutherford joins Iyer. Single to end the over. Delhi needs SIX TO WIN off the last over.
Second wicket for Viljoen. Pant holes out to Curran. Ingram is the new batsman at the crease. He gets off the mark with a four. Delhi Capitals needs 28 runs in 24 balls. Shami is back into the attack. Five off it. Delhi needs 23 off 18. Viljoen to bowl out. Ingram gets a boundary to third man and follows it up with a pull shot for four and another one to end the over. DC 154/3 after 18 overs.
Whoa! What a strike. Iyer hits one for six -- clean strike by the Delhi skipper. Good comeback, just five off the next five balls. Hardus Viljoen is back into the attack. Dhawan pulls one away for four, Delhi cruising at the moment. GONE! Dhawan falls for 56. Delhi Capitals has lost a wicket against the run of play. Pant joins Iyer in the middle. Seven off it. Curran goes for 10, a boundary each for Iyer and Pant. Delhi Capitals needs 36 runs in 30 balls. DC 128/2 after 15 overs.
Murugan Ashwin to continue. Dhawan reverse sweeps M Ash for his sixth boundary of the innings. 10 off it. 10 overs gone. Sam Curran is back into the attack. Five runs coming off his second. Murugan Ashwin returns for his third. Dhawan brings up his 50 with a single. One run to end in the over. DC 101/1 after 12 overs.
Harpreet to continue. Seven off it. Good comeback after leaking 17 in his first over. Murugan Ashwin has been introduced into the attack, concedes five off his first. R Ashwin is back. Iyer misreads the carrom ball but gets four for it anyway, the outside edge races away to third man. Also brings up the 50-run partnership. Eight off it. DC 80/1 after 9 overs.
Viljoen has been greeted with two back-to-back fours by Dhawan. Shreyas Iyer is the new batsman. 11 off it. Harpreet Brar, left-arm orthodox, has been hit for a first-ball six by Dhawan. Iyer cuts a wide delivery for four more before wrapping up the over with another hit to the fence. 17 coming off it. Ashwin comes into the attack and is straightaway taken for four. Dhawan's in the mood tonight. Eight off it. DC 60/1 after 6 overs.
Miscommunication between Dhawan and Shaw and the later is caught short of his crease by a mile, thanks to a direct hit by Mandeep Singh. Delhi has lost Shaw after a breezy start.
Good, tidy start from Shami. Just one off it in the end. Sam Curran to share the new ball. Shaw hits the first boundary of the run chase. Dhawan joins the fun, helps a friendly delivery to fine leg for yet another four. 11 off the over. Shami hurries Shaw with pace and bounce but the teenager has pulled that away for six. Shami follows it up with a ferocious drive. 12 off it. DC 24/0 after 3 overs.
Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan to begin the run chase, Shami with the new ball.
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Kings XI Punjab innings:
Harpreet Brar finishes off with a six over square leg off Rabada as KXIP puts up 163/7 in 20 overs. Will it be enough? We will find that out soon. Take a breather and join us back for Delhi's run-chase.
OUT. Rabada strikes first ball of his final over, with the scalp of R. Ashwin caught by Iyer for 16.
Ishant gives away 10 runs in the 19th. KXIP 151/6 and how much do you think it will put on the board?
Two successive wides from Ishant and Shreyas is not happy and rightly so. The next ball, Harpreet Brar scorches through the extra cover fence.
OUT. Mandeep throws it away after the hard work for his 30. Steps out a long way to Axar and Pant gets an easy stumping done. KXIP 129/6 in 16.3 overs.
Sandeep Lamichhane finishes his spell with figures 3 for 40 and could have had one more, if not for the dropped catch by Rabada of Mandeep Singh. KXIP 118/5 in 15 overs.
Phew! What a catch that was at the deep to get rid of Gayle. Lamichhane is having a mixed day at the Kotla as he manages to bounce back after getting hit all around the park. In his third over, he picks Gayle (69) and Curran (0) to peg back Punjab's charge. Gayle wicket was possible because of the brilliance of Ingram and Axar to complete a catch in the deep. KXIP 106/5 in 13 overs.
Rabada comes back into the attack and gets through a miserly over, just three runs off it. KXIP needs Gayle till the end, who can go for a late flourish at the death.
Brilliant start by Rutherford, gives only five runs in his first over. Gayle has now moved on to 61 off 32 balls, with KXIP 97/3 in 11 overs.
KXIP 92/3 after 10 overs with Gayle going strong except for a run-out scare in the previous over. Mandeep too gets used to the pace of the track as he tonks Axar for a six.
Gayle takes a single and gets to his fifty. Amit Mishra is getting smoked by the 'Universe boss'. KXIP 82/3 in 9 overs.
OUT. Gayle losing partners at the other end as David Miller (7) throws it away trying a big shot off Axar Patel. Mandeep Singh is the new man in and needs to take the innings deep along with Gayle, who is now batting on 41.
Punjab's scoring rate is now over eight runs as Gayle ends Mishra's first over with a huge six over midwicket. KXIP 61/2 in 7 overs.
After the Powerplay, Iyer introduces Amit Mishra into the attack.
Time for Strategic timeout with Gayle looking in fine touch but Punjab is two wickets down after a fluent star. KXIP 50/2 in 6 overs.
OUT. After playing out four dot balls, Mayank Agarwal steps out and Rabada digs in short and the cross batted swat goes high up, with Rutherford completing the catch at point. KXIP 46/2 in 5 overs.
Gayle takes Sandeep Lamichhane to the cleaners by hitting four boundaries off him. KXIP 42/1 in 4 overs.
Ishant concedes an expensive over, 12 off it. The fifth ball disappeared into the stands after being hit for a boundary off the previous delivery. KXIP 26/1 in 3 overs.
OUT. Sandeep Lamichhane gets hit for a six and a four and then makes a strong comeback with the scalp of Rahul on 12. The legspinner manages to get Rahul forward and Rishabh Pant does the rest behind the stumps.
SIX. Rahul takes on legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane from ball one, a big hit over the long-off. A one-handed hit that was from an in-form Rahul. Top shot!
A cautious start by both the Punjab openers, just three runs off Ishant's first over. KXIP 3/0 in 1 over.
All in readiness with Lokesh Rahul and Chris Gayle at the crease. Ishant Sharma to start the proceedings for host Delhi Capitals. Not to forget, in the reverse fixture, KXIP had registered a dramatic win when Delhi capitulated in a bizarre fashion. Can Kings XI do a double tonight?
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: Lokesh Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin (capt), Sam Curran, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, Hardus Viljoen, Mohammed Shami
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Colin Ingram, Sherfane Rutherford, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Ishant Sharma
Team news: KXIP brings in mystery spinner Harpreet Brar and Sam Curran replaces Nicholas Pooran. While for Delhi, Colin Ingram, Sandeep Lamichhane and Sherfane Rutherford are in.
Before the team news, an update from the first game, where Rajasthan Royals has registered a five-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in Jaipur.
Delhi Capitals has won the toss and opted to field. Strange decision by the Delhi captain considering the nature of the Kotla track. But Shreyas Iyer took the decision because he thinks there would be dew in the second innings.
Delhi Capitals has been brilliant in its away games but at home it has lost three games out of four. Delhi's team management has somehow failed to figure out a right combination for the sluggish Kotla track. Moreover, the forms of key players also not helping their cause. Again the toss would be crucial, which is just 15 minutes away.
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The standings prior to Saturday's first match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians:
Here is our correspondent Abhishek Mukherjee's preview for the upcoming contest from Kotla:
Considering every team plays half of its group games at home, a winning run at home is sine qua non for teams aspiring to reach the playoffs. Having lost three out of four matches at home, Delhi Capitals will therefore be eager to move on quickly from its tame defeat against Mumbai Indians on Thursday to garner a much-needed win at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Saturday.
It faces Kings XI Punjab, which had turned the tables on Capitals in Mohali earlier this month, triggering a dramatic collapse that left Capitals stumbling to a 14-run defeat. And after yet another batting capitulation on Thursday, the side will be under pressure to replicate the form that resulted in three away wins in a row.
READ | No guarantee with Kotla pitch, says Punjab coach Mike Hesson
On paper, however, both teams are evenly placed, having secured five wins out of nine matches so far. Moreover, Kings XI has injuries to worry about – to Moises Henriques, the all-rounder; to Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the off-spinner; and to C. V. Varun, the leg-spinner.
On a surface likely to assist spin, off-spinner R. Ashwin, the captain, and M. Ashwin, the leg-spinner, will be expected to shoulder much of the responsibility to contain the opposition. Mujeeb, who was injured in the contest against Rajasthan Royals earlier this week, may come in as the third spinner if he is declared fit.
Kings XI's openers are in good form. K.L. Rahul has three half-centuries and a century in five matches and is currently in the second spot among the leading run-getters in the league. Chris Gayle, with 352 runs, is 35 runs lighter than Rahul, having played a contest less. It includes an unbeaten 99 against Royal Challengers Bangalore last week.
Hard-hitting David Miller, who started off impressively, is due for a big score and is a threat, too. So is No. 3 Mayank Agarwal, the flamboyant strokemaker.
However, it is with the ball that Kings XI can deeply unsettle Capitals. Any collapse is likely to be caused by spinners, on a track that may have variable bounce, little pace, and plenty of turn.
READ | Miller: 'Good to stay in the game before World Cup'
Smarting from the defeat against Mumbai Indians, Capitals would be keen to bat better against spin. On the bright side, all its batsmen have runs under their belt. Its bowling unit is competent, too; fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris and Ishant Sharma have been disciplined and effective on many occasions, and spinners Amit Mishra and Axar Patel have been frugal.
The side may be tempted to field a third spinner in place of Keemo Paul, who had a forgettable outing on Thursday.
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