Calm Shreyas guides Delhi home

Delhi Capitals made heavy weather of their chase against Kings XI Punjab before picking their second win at home by five wickets in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Chasing Punjab’s 163/7, fashioned by Chris Gayle’s 37-ball 69, Delhi went down from 116/2 to 156/5, but captain Shreyas Iyer (58 n.o.) anchored the innings under pressure to take his side through.

Delhi’s victory was shaped by a 92-run second wicket-stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Iyer after teenaged leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane (3-40), and Kagiso Rabada (2-23) gave a good account of themselves.

Delhi lost Prithvi Shaw early, but Dhawan and Iyer came together to set the chase in order. The powerplay fetched Delhi 60 runs and set the ball rolling. Punjab missed their injured spinners -- Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and Varun Chakravarthy -- and with the dew doing all sorts of tricks, Delhi found their way through the middle-overs.

Dhawan cut and drove with authority. By the half-way stage, Delhi had garnered 90 runs with Dhawan settling into a rhythm and dictating the pace of the innings. He reached his 35th IPL half-century in 36 balls. Iyer, playing an ideal foil, kept one end busy.

However, Dhawan and Rishabh Pant departed in quick succession to put Delhi under some pressure. Iyer took the lead, reaching his half-century on way, but lost Colin Ingram and Axar Patel in successive overs to add to the suspense.

Needing six from the last over, Delhi finished it off with two balls remaining as Iyer hammered a boundary to mid-wicket.

For Punjab, Gayle was in full flow. He smashed Delhi spinners and seamers to the boundary, finishing his strokes with a flourish. Though Punjab lost both KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal during the powerplay, they still found themselves cruising.

With Gayle around, Punjab’s run-rate didn’t dip after the powerplay overs. By the time Gayle reached his half-century in 25 balls, Delhi had begun to look lost. With Mandeep Singh, Gayle strung 48 runs for the fourth wicket before falling to Lamicchane, whom he had hit for four boundaries in the fourth over.

The Jamaican pulled Lamicchane’s wrong ‘un to the deep where Colin Ingram caught it at the edge of boundary, fumbled, and threw the ball to Axar in the nick of time.

Gayle’s departure injected new life in Delhi and Lamicchane added to the joy by packing off Curran in the same over, reducing Punjab to 106/5 in the 13th over. Lamicchane could have had his fourth wicket had Rabada not dropped Mandeep at deep backward square when he was on 21. And though Punjab managed to go past 150, Delhi grabbed their chances on Saturday for their sixth win.