Kuldeep Yadav weaved his magic before Jake Fraser-McGurk and Rishabh Pant came up with a scintillating 77-run partnership for the third wicket to dent Lucknow Super Giants’ chances at their home ground on Friday.
The six-wicket victory was Delhi Capitals’ second in their sixth match this season and will go a long way in keeping their chances alive.
Australian Fraser-McGurk, 22, made a mark on his IPL debut with an innings of aggression and character. The Capitals’ new No.3 batter could prove to be a handful in the coming matches. The good start provided by Prithvi Shaw and Fraser-McGurk helped them chase down the 168-run target with 11 balls remaining.
This is the first time the Super Giants have lost having put up 160 or more batt-ing first.
Fraser-McGurk made 55 off 35 balls while Pant contributed 41 off 24. Both the batters were in a murderous mood as they cracked seven sixes between them. The Australian’s three consecutive sixes off Krunal Pandya helped the Capitals take a firm grip on their chase.
Pant was in his elements and played some astonishing shots over the infield. The Capitals captain helped Fraser-McGurk excel in his company as they took the team to within sniffing distance of the target.
Earlier, Kuldeep ripped through the LSG batting until a valiant eighth-wicket unbroken partnership of 73 — between Ayush Badoni and Arshad Khan — took the hosts to 167/7.
Coming into the team after three matches because of a groin injury, the Capitals chinaman showed great control and variation to return figures of 3/20.
The visitors started on a promising note after Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Quinton de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal in consecutive overs to put LSG under pressure at the Ekana Stadium.
Kuldeep then took over, dismissing Marcus Stoinis, with a wrong’un sliced tamely to backward point, and Nicholas Pooran off back-to-back deliveries to provide a jolt to the innings.
He removed skipper KL Rahul, who had just started to flourish after a hesitant start, in his next over to silence the packed stadium.
Rahul had attempted to cut one but only managed to feather an edge behind. It wasn’t given on the field but Rishabh Pant quickly reviewed and the verdict went in the Capitals’ favour.
The Super Giants crashed to 80/5 after 10 overs and were forced to bring in Deepak Hooda as their Impact Sub. The move didn’t really pay off and it was left to Badoni to shoulder the responsibility. His 55 not out off 35 balls, along with Arshad’s 20 off 16, helped LSG reach a respectable total.
Their unbroken 73-run partnership was the highest for the eighth wicket in the IPL’s history. Badoni showed a lot of maturity in holding the innings together after the reversals.
