Kings XI Punjab’s woes continued in the Indian premier League as they lost by nine wickets to Delhi Daredevils after a substandard batting display that gave them 118 to defend.
The first over was a battle of the veterans, with Virender Sehwag opening the batting and Zaheer Khan the bowling. It was the latter who proved the unequivocal victor as he removed Sehwag for one with the second ball of the match.
On a pitch whose bounce was about as easy to read as a James Joyce novel, the IPL’s bottom side and last year’s beaten finalists, Kings XI, made a nightmare start as JP Duminy removed Shaun Marsh with the first ball of the second over, Zaheer took his second wicket – Manan Vohra – in the third and Nathan Coulter-Nile removed Wriddhiman Saha in the fourth to reduce them to 10 for four.
George Bailey, the Kings XI captain, and David Miller found themselves facing a huge task in rebuilding the innings and it proved beyond them as Amit Mishra made it 37 for five, trapping the Australian lbw after a partnership of 27.
Thisara Perera hooked Coulter-Nile to square-leg to give the Australian his second wicket. With all the recognised batsmen back in the dugout, Miller launched a counterattack and put on 57 with Axar Patel from 8.2 overs before the latter holed out in the penultimate over. Miller followed him three balls later for 42, giving Coulter-Nile his fourth wicket for 20 runs in an outstanding spell.
The Daredevils, and Shreyas Iyer in particular, began the chase briskly, taking 19 from the IPL debutant Shardul Thakur’s first over and completing the 50 partnership – the Daredevils openers’ first in this year’s competition – in the seventh over.
Despite the bowler-friendly pitch, the opening pair rarely looked troubled. Iyer made 54 from 40 balls before being caught in the deep 13 runs short of the target. His partner, Mayank Agarwal, with an unbeaten 52, saw the Daredevils home by nine wickets with 37 balls to spare.
