Punjab Kings have won the toss and Shikhar Dhawan says they want to field first. It is a new venue and they want to see how the pitch plays, he says. Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada are the four overseas players for them. Pant says they would have batted first anyway, as the pitch looks a bit on the slower side. DC four overseas batters are all batters: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope and Tristan Stubbs.
Playing XI for DC : Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant, Ricky Bhui, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Porel(Sub)
Playing XI for PK : Sikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingston, Jitesh Sharma, Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Prabhsimran Singh(Sub)
Following Warner’s single off the opening ball, Marsh scored two consecutive fours against Curran. Warner hit Arshdeep Singh for a six and a four when the North End bowler erred on the shorter side in the subsequent over. Curran and Arshdeep each conceded a wide as well.
Marsh appeared to be dangerous. He greeted Rabada with a six over deep square leg after hitting two fours in the opening over. He hit Arshdeep over long-off in the following over, but he was caught at cover-point when he hit an uppish ball on the very next delivery. That was a sharp, overhead catch made by Rahul Chahar. Rabada is removed for a third six as he bowls his third over, and Hope clears his front leg to go over deep midwicket. Hope was bowled by Rabada on the following ball, so the happiness was short. Hope just chipped to extra cover on a length ball.
After giving up just eight runs in his opening two overs, Harpreet Brar came back to strangle Bhui along the leg side. UltraEdge displayed an evident spike, however the on-field umpire was not able to hear the nick. Axar Patel struck a few boundaries, but Rahul Chahar delivered a far more devastating punch in the 16th over. Despite trying to go inside-out against him, Tristan Stubbs ultimately smashed it far away. After sprinting in, Shashank Singh finished the catch with a slide.
After 19 overs, the DC were 149 for 8. King’s had hoped to keep them below 160 with Harshal bowling the last over. However, Porel lost his mind and hit two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.
Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow have shown great intent. Both picked up two fours each in the first over, bowled by Khaleel Ahmed.
Ishant Sharma shared the new ball but three of his first four balls were wides. The other one was sent to the boundary by Dhawan.
Dhawan attempted to hit a cross-bow shot as he approached Ishant, who was bowling around the wicket. He lost his form in the process and was bowled. Ishant squared up Prabhsimran for the next ball, but the outside edge sped away for four. However, after two balls, Bairstow was run out at the non-striker’s end as a drive from Prabhsimran struck Ishant’s fingers and struck the stumps. At position four, Sam Curran emerges.
Prabhsimran attempted a massive shot against Kuldeep in the tenth over, but he holed out to long-on. Jitesh Sharma attempted a reverse sweep in his subsequent over, but in addition to missing the ball, he also lost his balance and came out of his crease. Pant smashed the wicket behind the stumps with great attention to detail.
With a 31 off 25 batting average, Sam Curran remains in the middle. Livingstone has joined him, but after that, the batting lineup of Harshal Patel, Harpreet Brar, Shashank Singh, and others is a little thin.
With 28 needed from three overs, Capitals still had some hope. But Curran and Livingstone once again got stuck into Marsh, taking 18 off the 18th over.
Khaleel Ahmed got rid of Curran and Shashank Singh off successive balls. He could have had Harpreet Brar as well, but Warner dropped the catch at long-on. With Kings running two off that delivery, only six were needed from the final over.
All that meant Rishabh Pant ended up on the losing side in his comeback match. Punjab Kings, meanwhile, have kicked off their campaign with a win at their new home.
