On April 27, Feroz Shah Kotla was smiles galore as records tumbled amid stunned fans as the Feroz Shah Kotla produced a comprehensive Delhi Daredevils win. In all fairness, it wasn’t hard to understand why KKR didn’t stand a chance against a reinvigorated Delhi. In a contest where all four major awards- the stylish player of the match, the catch of the match, the award for enterprising thinking (Nayi Soch) and, the man of the match- went to the hosts, it was obvious the Kotla was going to be a one-way street.
A Delhi Daredevils outing at Kotla
Shining faces in the after-match presentations amplified Delhi Daredevil’s turnaround, a much-needed one for the team languishing one better than Mumbai Indians, sinking at the bottom of the table. As Colin Munro and Prithvi Shaw collected honours for the best catch of the match and the stylish batsman win respectively, the biggest honours went to Shreyas Iyer.
In an inning that could be described as terrifically well-planned and breathtaking exhibition of power hitting, Shreyas Iyer plundered the KKR attack by thudding 93 off just 40. What’s more, the newly instituted Delhi Daredevils captain remained unbeaten as he ridiculed the likes of Narine, Russell and Kuldeep Yadav in scoring his second 90s knock in the IPL. So implicit was Shreyas Iyer’s impact on the game that he was electric in the field, resulting in what was possibly a game-turning run out of Shubhman Gill. The young right-hander, with his 37 together with Russell, 44, contributing 91 of KKR’s 164 runs. KKR, in chasing 221, KKR- asked to chase over 10 an over, relied on usual suspects Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Robin Uthappa to see them through. But no one stayed for enough duration to salvage something as the biggies- Nitish Rana included- fell like ninepins in front of the mountain to climb.
While Amit Mishra and Avesh Khan delivered crucial breakthroughs, firing googlies and perfectly pitched shorter ones, removing Karthik and Russell (respectively), Trent Boulted the best spell. In removing the dangerous Narine and Utthappa, he made up for going at 11 an over.
But back to Delhi Daredevils’ show-stealing performance, you couldn’t stop doting at batsmen
If you were a cynic, you could say that a Rishabh Pant failure- 0 off 1- led to an Iyer charge. But if you were an optimist, you knew Iyer was going to make it count. Especially when 76 runs were collected off 4 overs, sixes flying like free lottery tickets for world’s greatest acrobatics show, it seemed Friday was slated to be a Delhi Daredevils matinee show.
But the greatest part about Iyer’s magnificent effort wasn’t just the sixes. Rather, it was the bravery with which he backed himself to go after KKR’s leading bowlers, not even allowing Narine to settle. At the other end, after a fluent start given by Munro, who finally collected some runs- 33 of them- Prithvi Shaw began expressing himself.
Smashing sixes, hitting runs at will
You were in for a treat. You were gorging on a buffet dinner. It was peppered by a tantalising spread seeing Shaw driving through the covers as Iyer sent the ball into the stands fearlessly. But despite their biggest win ever against KKR- by a margin of 55 runs- and the third highest in IPL, you ought to thank Gautam Gambhir( in hindsight) for handing over the ruins to Iyer who constructed a skyscraper of runs for the side. Could that be the turning decision for Delhi Daredevils?
