Young India 'A' batsman's 97 helps Delhi beat Gujarat Lions by seven wickets
Rishabh Pant
Delhi Daredevils batsman Rishabh Pant en route his 97 off 43 balls during the match against Gujarat Lions at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi yesterday. Pic/AFP
The exuberance of youth won over experience in a high-scoring match in IPL-10 at the Kotla last night. So much has already been written and discussed about the young turks of Delhi Daredevils under the tutelage of Rahul Dravid.
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The youngsters were in the limelight again as they faced a challenging target of 209. But the way Risbhab Pant and Sanju Samson tore into the Lions bowling, the match became a virtual no-contest.
The seven-wicket win with 15 balls to spare, has kept Daredevils in contention for a place in the play offs while Gujarat Lions are out of the fray.
Pant was the cynosure of all the eyes at the jam-packed stadium as he rained sixes at will and thrashed the bowling to pulp. He was well set to registered his maiden IPL century but in trying to loft Basil Thampi, edged the ball to the keeper. It was really cruel that he fell just three runs short of the three-figure mark. His 43-ball 97 with nine sixes and six fours may have done the job for the home team, but Pant was inconsolable when he got out against the run of play.
The match would have been even more no-contest, but for Daredevils reprieving Suresh Raina twice, first when he was just on two and then when on 40. Raina made the most of the chances and blasted 77 off just 43 balls to enable Gujarat Lions cross the 200-mark.
At half-way mark, it seemed Lions had done more than enough to challenge the Daredevils young batting line-up. But what followed was masacare of the Gujarat bowling.
Gujarat Lions did not begin well as they lost both openers Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith in just eight balls and on the ninth Shreyas Iyer floored a sitter in slips as Raina tried to heave a Rabada delivery.
They on 40, Rabada could not last on to a Raina flick off Mohammed Shami. Had one of these two catches been grasped, Lions would have struggled to post a healthy total. When Raina and Dinesh Karthik were going great gun, putting on a 133-run partnership in just 72 balls, the stage was set for them to accelerate further. But finally, the Daredevils fielders woke up before it became too late.
Rabada ran out Raina with a superb throw,Corey Anderson took a brilliant catch at mid-off to send back Karthik and Finch was well-held by a diving Pant, running back almost three-quarters way to the boundary.
The belated fielding effort ensured that the Lions did not run away with the match by posting a bigger total. At the end, the fans went happy seeing one of the rising starts Pant playing a memorable knock on his home ground.
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