Delhi Capitals (DC) became the 13th team in IPL history to bowl 120 balls of pace in an IPL innings, doing so against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala, on Monday (May 11). It is the first such instance in over ten years — Sunrisers Hyderabad were the last to do it, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, on April 30 2016, at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
DC came to this match against PBKS with just one spinner, captain Axar Patel. The left-arm tweaker was happy to rotate his pace group of Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, Auqib Nabi Dar, Mukesh Kumar, and IPL debutant Madhav Tiwari. Initially, it seemed like the perfect strategy: even though PBKS openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran
Singh got off to flying starts, there was a lot of purchase available for pacers.
In the first 10 overs, Nabi especially swung the ball well, and all pacers extracted bounce from good length. There was a small phase where it seemed like they were waking up to this possibility, through Nabi, and then more and more bowlers kept trying it: that’s how Mukesh Kumar got rid of Prabhsimran Singh for 18 before Tiwari sent back a belligerent Priyansh Arya out for 56 for his maiden IPL wicket.
“There was a bit of help in the wicket,” Tiwari said in the mid-innings break. “So I was like going for the length ball because it was not easy for the batsmen to hit from a length. As a batsman myself, I was just thinking if I hit the right areas with the help in the wicket, I’ll be able to get some good overs for the team,” he added.
However, Axar not using himself looked like an issue in the second half of the innings as the same fast bowlers enjoyed wickets off slower-ones, which were gripping in front of the bats.
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer anchored the innings with an unbeaten 59 off 36 balls, adding 83 runs with Cooper Connolly (38). Delhi struck back effectively at the death, with Starc dismissing Marcus Stoinis and Shashank Singh in consecutive deliveries, before Ngidi closed the innings superbly with a seven-run 20th over.
