JP Duminy has shown what captaincy can do. The man, who began his IPL career with Mumbai Indians 9 years ago, is the DD captain this year. Englishman Kevin Pietersen was the DD skipper last year and they had a formidable congregation of great batsmen but they failed to make any impression. This season, however, things are different despite DD losing some games. Duminy has shown the way as a lantern-holder with commendable acts as batsman, bowler and an industrious fielder. DD have Yuvraj Singh as well but the guy has failed so far because of the burden of expectations from him. The situation in IPL team constitutions is public knowledge unlike low-cost airlines, where it would be difficult to distinguish as to who is flying at what cost. Yuvraj’s performance is weighed down by his price tag because people want to see what made him the most expensive IPL player. Up until now, he has failed to come good and Duminy and others have done much better.
Duminy won the toss on Friday and elected to field and with KXIP batsmen bent on committing hara-kiri, DD didn’t have to work too hard. Sehwag fell in the first over, Shaun Marsh in the second, Manan Vohra in third and Wriddhiman Saha in the fourth and KXIP were reduced to a pitiful 10/4 in a matter of 21 balls from the start. Veteran speedster Zaheer Khan celebrated his return to competitive cricket with two wickets in the match. David Miller and George Bailey tried to steady the KXIP innings but even their 27-run stand for the fifth wicket couldn’t lift the spirits of the Punjab team. Bailey fell at 37 and Thisara Perera followed him to make it 45/6 in the 10th over. However, Miller and Axar Patel contrived to take the score past 100 before Patel fell as the seventh KXIP wicket at 102 in the 19th over. In the same over from Coulter-Nile, Miller also departed but Shardul Thakur and Anureet Singh took the KXIP score to 118/8 in the 20th over.
Coming out to chase 119 for victory, DD had no problems as openers Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer batted with authority and didn’t allow the Punjab bowlers to dominate them. Sandeep Sharma bowled economically in yielding just 10 runs in 3 overs but he didn’t take any wickets. Agarwal and Iyer found their bearings and since the target was small, they went about the task in a clinical fashion. Runs came easily as the batsmen kept finding gaps and kept up the pace of scoring. All risky play was avoided and the first wicket stand decided the match. Iyer fell in the 13th over but by that time DD were already close to finishing on the winning note. In the end the 9-wicket victory for Delhi was achieved in the 14th over.