The Indian Premier League has the uncanny ability to throw up incredible sporting theatres and Sunday was no different. On a night when R Ashwin suffered a potentially serious shoulder injury, both Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capitals took it in turns to punch the other into points of no return. Except, like two champion boxers, they refused to tap out. In the end, Delhi won by via a Super Over.
Delhi, inserted in, were 3/13 after four overs but still made 157 thanks Marcus Stoinis’ violent half-century. Forty nine of the 53 runs he made came in the last three overs. Chasing 158, Kings XI lost four wickets for five runs midway into the innings to seemingly lose their way. However, Mayank Agarwal orchestrated one of the great IPL chases to take his team knocking on the door of victory. They needed one run to win with three balls remaining.
That was when Stoinis, one of several contenders for the game’s MVP, bowled a dot before picking two wickets in as many balls to send it to a Super Over. However, Agarwal and Chris Jordan can only blame themselves for picking the fielders off two full tosses to send the match into the Super Over. In the Super
Over, Kagiso Rabada, a man made for conditions like this, removed KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran for just two. The damning thing in all of this was there were three balls to go. After turning down several invitations to win, Delhi finally managed to win in a match neither side seemed keen to win.
The performance of the Kings XI batsmen in the Super Over was, in essence, reflected the performance of the batsmen of both teams. On a pitch that wasn’t conducive to natural stroke play, both sets found it hard. Application was going to be the need of the hour and that was in short supply on a pitch that had lots of grass cover but the extra bounce came with a caveat: it was uneven.
Caution, hence, should have been the byword but Delhi, one of the favourites for this edition, got ‘over excited’ a touch at the start as commentator Scott Styris said on air. They wanted to treat the ball as a punching bag. One cause for concern for Delhi will be the injury to spinner Ashwin. Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 157/8 (Stoinis 53, Shreyas 39; Shami 3/15) tied with Kings XI Punjab 157/8 (Agarwal 89).