Sandeep Sharma skittles DD to lowest total

For a team that relies more on its batting, the Sandeep Sharma-led attack confined Delhi Daredevils to 67 – it’s lowest total ever – before the openers finished the job with a flourish.

Sandeep scalped a wicket in each of his four overs, took two catches, including a brilliant, diving left-handed return catch to be adjudged Man of the Match.

 

Rarely have the Kings XI Punjab bowlers looked so effective. For a team that relies more on its batting, the Sandeep Sharma-led attack confined Delhi Daredevils to 67 – it’s lowest total ever – before the openers finished the job with a flourish.

Chasing 68 for victory, Martin Guptill and a fit-again Hashim Amla needed only 7.5 overs to complete a 10-wicket rout.

The result took Kings XI’s tally to eight points from nine outings and kept Delhi Daredevils at four points, after eight matches.

Full scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Failing to recover from a three-wicket haul by Sandeep in power-play - in his bag of four for 20 - Daredevils folded in the 18th over. Back after a one-match break, Sandeep scalped a wicket in each of his four overs, took two catches, including a brilliant, diving left-handed return catch to be adjudged Man of the Match.

On a pitch, slower than usual, the Daredevils batsmen fell in a heap owing to poor shot-making and made the bowlers look even better.

After Sam Billings was caught behind in his attempt to run the ball to third man, Sanju Samson paid the price for not reading the pace of the pitch right. His intended shot to midwicket sent the ball, off a leading edge, to mid-off.

Sandeep’s third wicket was the dismissal of the day. Shreyas Iyer’s mistimed drive saw the alert bowler dive to his left and bring off a spectacular, low left-handed catch.

The introduction of Axar Patel’s left-arm spin shattered the stumps of Karun Nair, the stand-in skipper for an injured Zaheer Khan. In the following two overs, the dangerous duo of Rishabh Pant and Chris Morris departed. Glenn Maxwell’s first over had Pant trapped leg-before and Patel’s second over accounted for Morris, with the bowler accepting a regulation return catch.

Introduced in the 15th over, Varun Aaron sent back Corey Anderson, bowled off the inside edge. Sandeep returned for his final over and scalped Kagiso Rabada, with Shaun Marsh at mid-on making amends for the spilled catch a little while ago. Mohammad Shami and Shahbaz Nadeem also did not make the delay the inevitable.

Soon, Kings XI openers needed only 32 minutes to complete Daredevils’ misery. Guptill was the dominant of the two, hitting three sixes and six boundaries in this 27-ball 50. Amla, recovering from a pulled-hamstring, could afford to go slow.

Chasing 68, Guptill’s 50 was clearly the highest contribution in terms of percentage of runs scored in a winning cause.

Daredevils’ lowest tally also tied the third-lowest in the Indian Premier League. This was also Kings XI’s first 10-wicket victory. The victory with 73 deliveries to spare is third highest in terms of number of balls remaining.

In addition, the aggregate of 135 runs for the loss of 10 wickets matched the previous low of 135 for the loss of 12 wickets in a clash involving host Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Earlier, Daredevils left out an injured Zaheer Khan, Pat Cummins and Ankit Bawne. Sam Billings, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mohammad Shami returned to action. For Kings, Amla came back along with T. Nataraj, Aaron and Sandeep, for Eion Morgan, Ishant Sharma, Anureet Singh and K. C. Cariappa.