LIONS JUST OVERCOMES THE MIGHTY MORRIS MANIAC
These are the matches that made INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE what it is today, yes the nail-biting last ball finish is what IPL is known for and till this match between the Delhi Daredevils and the Gujarat Lions we haven’t witnessed any last ball thriller this season. So, in a way IPL season 9 needed it more than the spectators who were present at the Feroz Shah Kotla or those who were watching it on television.
On a flat looking Kotla strip Daredevils captain Zaheer Khan won the toss and just because the trend which is going on in IPL 2016 he opted to bowl first as he said after the winning the toss to Manjrekar that “I am just following the trend.”
After being put into bat and in the absence of Aaron Finch, Lions were needed a solid foundation led by their new dynamic opening duo of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne smith and they have got more than what they would have expected. The duo smashed the season’s fastest 50 partnership in just 23 balls and at one stage they were placed at 110 for no loss after 10 overs, and were all set for more than 200 but after losing Smith and McCullum on 53 and 60 respectively, Lions lost their way completely. Daredevils bowlers just like the last match against Mumbai Indians pulled things back rather quickly. The Protea duo of Tahir and Morris bowled beautifully and bowled in tandem in the middle overs with the brilliant spell of 4-0-24-3 and 4-0-35-2 respectively. Their combined 5 wickets in the later part of the inning made sure that Gujarat Lions could not reach any where near 200 and end up on 172 in their 20 overs which was still a stiff target.
Daredevils started their chase with a new opening pair of Quinton De Kock and Sanju Samson as Shreyas Iyer was dropped after 4 consecutive failures, they started the chase in a rather embarrassing way as they lost 3 of their top order batsmen in mere 3.6 overs when the scoreboard was reading just 16. Making his IPL debut the U/19 star Risabh Pant and batting with him the stylish left hander Jean Paul Duminy did try to consolidate the inning as they added 41 runs for the 4th wicket partnership. After losing Risabh on 20 off 17 balls, Daredevils were looking down and out at 57/4 then came the blitz of Chris Morris, from no where he produced 82 0ff 32 balls with 4 Fours and 8 huge Sixes. Morris along with Duminy put on 87 runs in 39 balls, Morris was the dominant one as he made a fastest 50 of this season in just 17 balls.
Suddenly the down and out looking Daredevils made an outstanding comeback and the match was in balance, Daredevils were needed 18 runs from the last 12 balls. But the last 2 overs delivered by Praveen Kumar and Dwayne Bravo were quite magnificent as you would find every ingredient of death bowling in it from yorkers to slower deliveries, gave absolutely no room to the well set and rampaging Morris to free his arms. In the last over the Caribbean all-rounder Dwayne Bravo gave away only 11 runs to limit the home team at 171, Delhi Daredevils registered their first loss at home in this season and Gujarat Lions again became the table topper.