Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma took 3-34 as Delhi Capitals survived a late scare from Arshad Khan to beat Lucknow Super Giants by 19 runs in Match 64 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
After half-centuries by Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs propelled DC to a daunting 208/4, Ishant starred to reduce LSG to 44/4 in the fifth over. While Nicholas Pooran made a hard-hitting 61, Arshad threatened to take the game away with an unbeaten 58 off 33.
But it wasn’t enough as LSG ended up at 189/9, as DC ended their group stage with a win and awaited the results of other games to know if they could enter the playoffs. The result also means Rajasthan Royals have qualified for the Playoffs.
In defence of 208, Impact Player Ishant scythed through the LSG top-order in the power-play. KL Rahul was undone by lack of timing in lofting an Ishant out-swinger and gave a catch to cover-point. Quinton de Kock was next to fall to Ishant – mistiming a loft to mid-on.
Marcus Stoinis danced down the pitch on Axar Patel’s first ball to loft but missed the delivery which turned enough and was stumped easily. Pooran injected some momentum into LSG’s innings by hitting Axar for two fours and as many sixes over the shorter boundary area.
Though Pooran hit two more sixes and a four, including a reverse-sweep off Kuldeep Yadav, he wasn’t getting support from the other end as Ishant trapped Hooda lbw, while Ayush Badoni toe-ended a loft to long-off against Tristan Stubbs.
Pooran continued to wage a lone battle by clipping Gulbadin Naib for consecutive boundaries and reached his fifty in 20 balls. But his counter-attacking knock ended in the 12th over when Axar dived forward to take a superb catch at cover, off Mukesh Kumar. Once Krunal was stumped off Kuldeep, it felt that DC would coast home to victory.
But Arshad had other ideas, striking Kuldeep for a four and six each, before giving the same treatment to Ishant. Arshad used the long handle well to put DC under more pressure by hitting Khaleel for two sixes and a four. Yudhvir Singh also gave him support by taking a four and six off Rasikh Salam, before holing out to long-off against Khaleel. Arshad then muscled Rasikh down the ground for six, before getting his fifty in 25 balls, to keep LSG in the hunt by bringing the equation to 29 runs off 12 balls.
Ravi Bishnoi was run out by a throw from Jake Fraser-McGurk in the deep as Mukesh gave only six runs in the 19th over. Rasikh nailed his fuller and slower balls to defend 23 runs in the final over to give DC a narrow win.
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