Devils caught short

New Delhi, April 24
Chris Gayle did save the Indian Premier League perhaps. As without him the Ferozshah Kotla crowd, buzzing in excitement to witness another Gayle Storm, got to watch the most boring one-and-a-half innings of this season.The excitement quotient rose only in the last three overs when Shreyas Iyer gave Kings XI Punjab a big scare while anchoring Delhi Daredevils’ run chase. Needing 144 runs to win, Iyer and Rahul Tewatia had the match in the bag. Tewatia and Iyer took 15 runs off Barinder Sran’s over. Delhi now needed 28 runs of the last three overs.Andrew Tye then fooled Tewatia with a slower ball that he edged to KL Rahul. The Kotla crowd that had nothing to cheer for till then, suddenly, they woke from the slumber to back the home team.Then Liam Plunkett was dismissed for a golden duck. Sran then gave away only four runs in the penultimate over. Iyer and Amit Mishra had to score 17 off the last over to take Delhi home. After refusing the single, Iyer hit a flat six over Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s head. A double and a chancy four of the second last ball of the innings and Delhi was one hit away from winning the home game.But it wasn’t to be. Iyer was caught at long off trying to hit a six that sealed a four-run win for the visitors. His 45-ball 57 was the only talking point of the night.Gambhir falters again
For the second match in running Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir failed to get going. He was dismissed in the sixth over after having struggled to score four runs in 13 deliveries. While his new opener Prithvi Shaw lit up the stadium briefly with his 10-ball 22, Gambhir had a nightmarish start. Delhi’s leading scorer of this season, Rishabh Pant, was castled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s carrom ball. If not for the late dash from Iyer, the Delhi team would have long folded. Earlier, Kings XI Punjab spluttered their way to a modest score of 143/8.Scoreboard
Kings XI Punjab
Runs Balls 4s 6sKL Rahul c Avesh Khan b Plunkett 23 15 3 1A Finch c Iyer b Avesh Khan 2 4 0 0M Agarwal b Plunkett 21 16 3 0K Nair c Iyer b Plunkett 34 32 4 0Y Singh c Pant b Avesh Khan 14 17 1 0D Miller c Plunkett b Christian 26 19 1 1R Ashwin c Tewatia b Boult 6 7 0 0A Tye b Boult 3 9 0 0B Sran not out 0 1 0 0Extras: (B1 LB8 W5) 14Total: (8 wickets in 20 overs) 143FOW: 1-6 2-42 3-60 4-85 5-116 6-127 7-140 8-143 Bowling O M R WTrent Boult 3 0 21 2Avesh Khan 4 0 36 2Liam Plunkett 4 0 17 3Daniel Christian 3 0 17 1Amit Mishra 4 0 33 0Glenn Maxwell 1 0 4 0Rahul Tewatia 1 0 6 0DELHI DAREDEVILS
Runs Balls 4s 6sP Shaw b Rajpoot 22 10 4 0G Gambhir c Finch b Tye 4 13 0 0G Maxwell c Tye b Rajpoot 12 10 1 1S Iyer c Finch b Rahman 57 45 5 1R Pant b Mujeeb Ur Rahman 4 7 0 0D Christian run out (Agarwal/Ashwin) 6 11 0 0R Tewatia not out 24 21 1 1L Plunkett c Nair b Sran 0 1 0 0A Mishra not out 1 2 0 0Extras: (LB2 W7) 9Total: (8 wickets in 20 overs) 139FOW: 1-25 2-41 3-42 4-61 5-76 6-123 7-124 8-139 Bowling O M R WAnkit Rajpoot 4 0 23 2Barinder Sran 4 0 45 1Andrew Tye 4 0 25 2Ravichandran Ashwin 4 0 19 0Mujeeb Ur Rahman 4 0 25 2Man of the Match: Ankit Rajpoot