Spin twins Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar shared six wickets between them to power Punjab Kings to a 31-run win over Delhi Capitals in the IPL here on Saturday.
This was bottom-placed DC’s eighth loss from 12 matches as they became the first team to be eliminated, while PBKS kept their playoff hopes alive, climbing to sixth spot.
David Warner smashed a 23-ball 50, his 60th fifty in the IPL, en route to his 54 (27b; 10x4, 1x6) to give DC’s 168-run chase a flying start.
From being 69 for no loss in the power-play, DC came crashing down with Brar (4/30) and Chahar (2/16) ripping Delhi apart from seventh to 11th over.
Brar dismissed Warner with a successful review and there was no looking back as DC were restricted 136/8 on a slow-turner.
Put into bat, PBKS rode on Prabhsimran Singh’s 103, his first century in the IPL, to post 167 for seven.
Veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma (2/27, 3 overs) claimed the prized scalps of Shikhar Dhawan (7) and Liam Livingstone (4), while left-arm spinner Axar Patel (1/27) dismissed the in-form Jitesh Sharma (5).
But Prabhsimran kept ticking along and hit 10 fours and six sixes in his 65-ball knock to help PBKS recover from being 45/3.
Sam Curran (20) gave him the support in the middle overs to stich a 72-run (54 balls) partnership.
Scoreboard
Punjab Kings Innings: Prabhsimran Singh b Mukesh Kumar 103 Shikhar Dhawan c Rossouw b Sharma 7 Liam Livingstone b Sharma 4 Jitesh Sharma b Patel 5 Sam Curran c Aman Hakim Khan b Dubey 20 Harpreet Brar c Marsh b Kuldeep Yadav 2 Shahrukh Khan run out 2 Sikandar Raza not out 11 Rishi Dhawan not out 0 Extras: (LB-2, W-11) 13
Total: (For Seven Wickets In 20 Overs) 167
Fall of Wickets: 1-10, 2-32, 3-45, 4-117, 5-129, 6-154, 7-165.
Delhi Capitals bowling: Khaleel Ahmed 4-0-36-0, Ishant Sharma 3-0-27-2, Axar Patel 4-0-27-1, Praveen Dubey 3-0-19-1, Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-32-1, Mitchell Marsh 1-0-21-0, Mukesh Kumar 1-0-3-1.
Delhi Capitals: 136 for 8 in 20 overs (David Warner 54; Harpreet Brar 4/30, Rahul Chahar 2/16).
