NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals finally came good at home as fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer saw them beat Kings XI Punjab by five wickets at Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday. The opening pair of Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw started brightly in their pursuit of 164, but the latter again failed to carry on. He was run out for 13. In walked skipper Iyer, who combined with Dhawan as the duo stitched together a partnership of 92 in 64 balls.
Dhawan was the aggressor, hitting seven boundaries and a maximum in his 56. But after his dismissal, the hosts looked shaky as Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram threw away their wickets. Iyer remained calm and took Delhi to a second win at home in five matches.
Earlier, a Gaylestorm had threatened to inundate the home side but spinners Sandeep Lamichhane and Axar Patel restricted Punjab to 163/7. After receiving criticism over selection, Delhi’s management opted for the wrist spin of Lamichhane over Chris Morris. The move paid dividends as the Nepalese took three important wickets. Axar got two.
The start for the visitors was explosive as KL Rahul took on Lamichhane. He hit a six and a four and tried to repeat that again. But the spinner tossed one up and spun it away. Pant whipped off the bails. Then on, it was a Chris Gayle show. He was ruthless. His biggest six of the night travelled 101m. At one stage, it looked like Punjab would cross 200 but Gayle’s fall put on the brakes.
And what a relay catch it was to dismiss him. Gayle’s pull seemed like it would go over Colin Ingram at the fence, but the South African lobbed the ball to Axar 10 yards away. KXIP 163/7 in 20 ovs (Gayle 69, Mandeep 30; Lamichhane 3/40) lost to DC 166/5 in 19.4 ovs (Dhawan 56, Shreyas 58 n.o).