Kings XI beat DC by 5 wickets : Sports News

Dubai: Nicholas Pooran half century 53 off 28 guided Punjab to 5 wickets win against Delhi Capitals in the 38th match of the IPL 2020, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, here on Tuesday. Punjab from 10 matches have won their 4th game taking them to 5th spot in the IPL table while DC lost their third game but stand at top of the table.

DC posted 164/5 in 20 overs while Punjab finished 167/5 with one over remaining. Apart from Pooran''s half century 53 off 28, Gayle''s quickfire 29 off 13, Maxwell 32 helped Punjab beat DC. In the second last over of the last ball Neesham smashed Sams for six taking Punjab to 5 wickets win over DC.

Chasing target openers Mayank Agarwal and skipper KL Rahul put 17 runs on board for first wicket, as Rahul was scalped by Axar Patel in 3rd over at 15 off 11 runs (1 four, 1 six). After Rahul''s exit Chris Gayle along with Agarwal scored quickly adding 35 runs for second wicket. It was Gayle''s power hitting strokes that left Deshpande awestruck for 4, 4, 6, 4, 6 bringing 26 runs in 5th over. But Gayle was stopped by Ashwin in 5.2 over taking his crucial wicket. Gayle quickfire 29 off 13 balls included 3 fours and 2 sixes.

In same over Agarwal was run out at 5, Punjab losing third wicket under 56 runs. Maxwell and Pooran came with a brilliant partnerships putting 69 runs for fourth wicket, and was tough to stop them and in meantime Pooran also completed his fifty after smashing Rabada for four in 12.2 over and then in next ball was bowled by Rabada. Pooran''s 53 came in 28 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes. Maxwell and Hooda had contributed another 22 runs for fifth wicket, but Punjab lost its 5th wicket in form of Maxwell at 32 off 24 balls (3 fours) bowled by Rabada grabbing his second wicket in 16th over.

In the last 3 overs Punjab needed 14 runs with Neesham and Hooda still at the crease. In the second last over of the last ball Neesham smashed Sams for six taking Punjab to 5 wickets win over DC. Hooda 15 and Neesham 10 remained not out.

Earlier, DC won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Shikhar Dhawan slammed his second successive unbeaten hundred taking his team to a challenging total. He also became the first player in the IPL''s 13-year history to smash back-to-back centuries. Dhawan also became the 5th player in IPL history to go past 5000 runs and join an elite list of players. RCB skipper Virat Kohli leads the list with 5759 runs, followed by CSK batsman Suresh Raina with 5368 runs. Rohit Sharma (5158) and David Warner (5037) are the other two players to make it to the elite list.

Delhi Capitals lost the wicket of Prithvi Shaw (7) in the 4th over bowled by Jimmy Neesham. Captain Shreyas Iyer came to bat next and joined opener Shikhar Dhawan in the middle. Iyer, who got off the mark with a six batted sensibly along with Dhawan as the duo took DC to 53-1 after the end of the powerplay. During the process, Iyer also completed his 2000 runs in IPL. On the other hand, Dhawan continued his brilliant run in the tournament and brought up his 40th IPL fifty and 3rd this season off just 28 balls. It was also his 4th 50-plus score in a row this season. DC?captain Shreyas Iyer (14) got out immediately after Dhawan''s fifty as M Ashwin provided the much-needed breakthrough for KXIP.

Dhawan was joined in the middle by Rishabh Pant. KXIP did well in the middle overs to contain DC batsmen with spinners Maxwell, Bishnoi, Ashwin. Pant struggled to time the ball as KXIP smartly used Maxi''s defensive bowling. Stoinis never got going and Hetmyer didn''t get many freebies as Shami and Arshdeep hit the yorker pretty consistently. However, Dhawan, who had scored an unbeaten 101 off 58 against Chennai Super Kings in their last match, clobbered 12 fours and three sixes in his 61-ball 106-run knock, took DC to 164. Mohammed Shami 2/28 and Jimmy Neesham 1/17 were the pick of the bowlers for KXIP.