A deafening silence had eerily descended upon the Feroz Shah Kotla, albeit only momentarily. It was as if someone had switched the mute button on the remote control. Out in the centre, Rishabh Pant looked distraught and was down on one knee. Dismissed for 97, three runs short of what would have been his first IPL century, he was almost numb. Gujarat Lions’ captain Suresh Raina came forward to console the 19-year-old. It was a recognition of a rare talent in Indian cricket. It was also a grim acceptance that his team’s IPL campaign had come to a premature end. Blame his toothless bowling attack, which was bludgeoned into submission by Pant and Sanju Samson. As Pant trudged back to the dug-out, the capacity crowd greeted him with a thunderous applause.
Chasing 209 to keep their team’s playoff hopes alive, Delhi’s two dynamic batting lynchpins pulled off an incredible heist. A stunning 143-run stand for the second wicket, which came in a shade under 10 overs, propelled the home side to the second biggest successful run chase in the history of IPL. Needing more than 10 runs per over from the outset, Delhi needed early momentum. But the demise of stand-in captain Karun Nair pegged them back initially.
However, Pant and Samson underscored their supreme talents. They looked under no stress whatsoever. They did not care about the odds stacked against them. Neither did they care about reputations. There was a sense of fearlessness that defined their batting. One that bordered on sheer insouciance. Raina kept rotating his hapless bowlers around, but once again, the absence of a quality strike bowler hurt them badly. Pant seized the initiative with some audacious hits, before Samson matched the Roorkee lad in his aggression. After 10 overs, Daredevils had motored along to 113/1. From there on, it was sheer carnage. Raina looked around for that spark of inspiration. But he was not going to get even an ounce of it, either from his bowlers or fielders. By the time Samson departed for a 31-ball 61, the fate of the match was sealed. The hosts required just 31 runs from the remaining six overs.
At the half-way stage, Raina would have thought a score of 208/7 would have been enough, especially against the young and misfiring batting line-up of the Daredevils. However, Rahul Dravid’s youth brigade has shown that they are unpredictable and can turn it around just when it matters most. After being shot out for just 67 against Punjab in Mohali on Sunday, most observers had written them off. It looked like another season would quietly go by with Delhi not making the playoffs. However, their stupendous efforts on Thursday will only spur Dravid’s men to play with more vigour in the upcoming duels. As things stand, they now have a realistic chance of making it to the last four. If they do that, it could well be the story of IPL 10.
Lion-hearted efforts
“It’s all happening here”. Bill Lawry would have screamed at the top of his voice if he witnessed Kagiso Rabada’s opening over against the Gujarat Lions on a blustery evening at the Ferozshah Kotla. The six deliveries from the Protea paceman was a compelling watch, one that set the tempo for this high octane clash between the two bottom-placed teams of IPL 10. Rabada snapped the dangerous Brendon McCullum with his very first delivery. It was sharp and well pitched up, and swerved away just enough to square up the 35-year-old former New Zealand captain. Two deliveries later, Dwayne Smith, McCullum’s opening partner would get run out by Shahbaz Nadeem. The drama and excitement would only get heightened as Rabada’s final two deliveries would also create wicket-taking chances, only to be dropped by Marlon Samuels and Shreyas Iyer respectively. The fast bowler’s figures after the opening burst read 1-0-3-1. It was an impressive turnaround when you consider that just two evenings ago, Rabada was flayed to all corners of the Kotla by Hyderbad’s Yuvraj Singh and Moises Henriques. The South African’s opening salvo put Lions under immediate strife.
Their insipid campaign in this IPL notwithstanding, the Lions have relied heavily on their captain Raina to bail them out of trouble. At 13/2, he was expected to orchestrate yet another turnaround. That’s precisely what he did. Raina kick-started his innings with a six and a brace of boundaries against Mohammed Shami. Raina’s early assault helped Gujarat soothe their frayed nerves. The captain found an able ally in wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, but it was Raina who farmed most of the strike early on. Without much fuss, he took Lions to 58/2 at the end of Powerplay. In the seven overs that followed, Lions roared back into the game with an authoratative display of batsmanship from their captain and senior pro, adding 81 runs. During this phase, Raina’s formula was pretty simple. He rotated strike efficiently, and backed himself to clear the boundary. Post Powerplay, he consumed just three dot balls, a definitive indicator of his prowess in this phase of the game. Raina’s belligerence allowed Karthik to play himself in. He opened up, unfurling a series of sumptuous cover drives and flicks. The veteran stumper launched into Delhi’s left-arm spinner Shabaz Nadeem, smoking him for two huge sixes in the 12th over to bring up the duo’s 100-run stand. By then, they had negated Rabada’s heroics upfront. In the end, it required superlative efforts from Delhi’s fielders to send the duo back. Raina would get run out for 77, with his third-wicket stand with Karthik having yielded 133 runs. Karthik followed his captain to the dug-out in the very next over for 65, courtesy a brilliant one-handed catch by Corey Anderson at deep mid-off. In the end, even a score of 208 would prove insufficient for the visitors.
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