Delhi Capitals returned to winning ways with a dominating nine-wicket victory against Punjab Kings in their Indian Premier League 2022 clash at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday.
There were doubts about whether the match would go ahead due to the numerous Covid-19 cases in the Delhi camp but after a change of venue, the match was played as scheduled and DC put on quite the show.
After winning the toss, Delhi bowled-out Punjab for 115 runs – the lowest team total so far in IPL 2022 – and chased down the target in just 10.3 overs.
Openers David Warner (60* off 30) and Prithvi Shaw (41 off 20) were at their best from the get-go and ensured Punjab didn’t ever get a look in. The left-hand-right-hand duo matched each other shot-for-shot and helped DC register the highest team total in a powerplay so far this season (81 runs).
Warner registered a record-extending 52nd half-century in IPL cricket on the back of some sparkling strokeplay.
Rahul Chahar (1/21 from 2.3 overs) was the only Punjab bowler to get a wicket before Sarfaraz Khan (12* off 13), who was promoted up the order, joined Warner at the crease to finish off the chase.
Earlier, the Kings were off to a decent start as skipper Mayank Agarwal (24 off 15) and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (9 off 10) took the team to 33 for no loss in 3.3 overs. But what followed then was a sensational collapse.
Punjab went on to lose eight wickets for just 59 runs as Mustafizur Rahman (1/28), Khaleel Ahmed (2/21), Lalit Yadav (2/11 from two overs), Axar Patel (2/10) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/24) put in a memorable collective bowling performance.
If it wasn’t for contributions from Chahar (12) and Arshdeep Singh (9) down the order, PBKS would have finished with an even smaller total. However, it didn’t matter eventually as Delhi were simply too good on the day.