IPL 2022: Shardul, Marsh help Delhi route PBKS, top 4 hopes brighter

Delhi Capitals won their second game in a row for the first time in IPL 2022 after their bowlers together helped defend Mitchell Marsh-fueled 159 against Punjab Kings. For the time being, Delhi leads Royal Challengers Bangalore in the points table.

As batter after batter failed to stick in on a track with some help, it crumbled in the face of some accurate spin bowling. Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel were also persistent in the middle overs, picking up four wickets in eight overs.

Jonny Bairstow scored 28 runs in 15 balls while they were on the powerplay. But everything changed when Anrich Nortje got him trapped in the deep off a pull. This was swiftly followed by a double break from Shardul Thakur, who not only gave away 10 runs in his first over but also caught both Shikhar Dhawan, caught behind while squeezed for space, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, slicing a great hit to point, in the same over as Punjab finished the powerplay on 54/3.

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Punjab’s batsmen made it appear like way by failing to pick lengths and variations. Axar Patel first caught Mayank Agarwal in the crease to a slide and bowled him for a duck. Liam Livingstone kept it quiet for the first five deliveries before swinging wildly at a wrong’un from Kuldeep Yadav and was stumped in the next over.

Kuldeep then bowled Harpreet Brar with another googly, while Axar then got under Rishi Dhawan with another slider. Having fallen to 82/7 in the 13th over, Punjab could not recover despite some lusty smashes from Jitesh Sharma, who helped them cross 100 but fall short of Delhi’s 159.

The Delhi Capitals could only manage 159 runs because Liam Livingstone, who admitted to finding bowling difficult, found it quite the opposite on the day as he split open the spine of Delhi’s batting.

Livingstone had David Warner chipping gently to point with the first ball of the contest after DC chose to bat. As if it wasn’t enough, he also dismissed Rishabh Pant and Rovman Powell in the same over. The former was playing a cat and mouse game with the spinner, who had already lofted him for a six.

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Livingstone got one to slip under Pant’s bat as the batter danced down the track, stumping him. Powell was then caught at long-off after miscuing a strong hit off a leg break. Livingstone was the main performer with the ball for the Punjab Kings, finishing with numbers of 3-27 and the greatest scalps of DC’s batting.

DC found their moments with the bat in between spin downturns. Sarfraz Khan was able to momentarily imitate Prithvi Shaw’s scoring rate in the powerplay, going through a five-ball span that read 6 4 4 4 4. Even after Arshdeep Singh dismissed Sarfaraz and then Lalit Yadav (24 off 21), DC found one batter who hung in there – Mitchell Marsh. The big-hitting is back. 

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Marsh chose his huge hits with precision. When the pacer went too full, he lofted Kagiso Rabada for back-to-back sixes. However, as DC continued to slide at the other end, Marsh became warier before shifting gears in the final four overs. He hit four boundaries in his final eight balls before holing out in the deep in the penultimate over following a crucial 63 that proved match-winning.