Saturday 2 May 2015 08:35, UK
Delhi Daredevils cruised to a nine-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab in a one-sided contest at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
The visitors never recovered after imploding to 10-4 after being put into bat, only David Millar saving face with a spirited 42 off 41 balls in a total of 118-8.
In reply Mayank Agarwal (52no) and Shreyas Iyer (54) put on 106 for the Daredevils’ first wicket, propelling the home side to victory in just 13.5 overs.
Delhi’s fourth win in eight matches quickly became a formality after Zaheer Khan, back in action after almost a year out with injury, removed Virender Sehwag with the second ball of the match.
The hosts struck with the second delivery of the match when Zaheer Khan – playing his first competitive match in close to a year – had Virender Sehwag caught at cover point.
The rot continued as JP Duminy trapped Shaun Marsh lbw and found the edge of Manan Vohra’s bat to make it 10-3; there was no further addition to the score when Wriddhiman Saha edged Nathan Coulter-Nile behind.
Captain George Bailey added 27 runs with Miller only to fall lbw to Amit Mishra as wickets continued to tumble. Miller, watchful at first, increased the rate with two boundaries off one Angelo Mathews over and a six off Imran Tahir before falling in the 19th over.
Axar Patel was the only other batsman to pass 20, scoring 22 off 26 balls.
Kings XI Punjab needed early wickets to avoid a sixth defeat in eight matches but instead failed to break the partnership between Agarwal and Iyer before it reached three figures, the pair taking 19 runs off the second over of the reply bowled by debutant Shardul Thakur.
Iyer helped himself to three sixes before he picked out Patel, who sealed his own side’s fate when he bowled a leg-side wide.
