Daredevils openers close the deal

rajkot, May 3 

Rishabh Pant (69) and Quinton de Kock (46) produced a match-winning opening stand to guide Delhi Daredevils to a convincing eight-wicket victory over Gujarat Lions here on Tuesday. 

Batting first, Gujarat posted 149/7 in 20 overs, thanks to a much-needed half-century by Dinesh Karthik (53). In reply, riding on an impressive 115-run opening partnership between Pant and de Kock, Daredevils chased down the total comfortably with 16 balls and eight wickets to spare. 

The duo amassed 61 runs in the Powerplay. Both the left-handers kept on playing aggressively even after the Powerplay, and brought up the 100-run partnership in the 12th over. The hosts finally struck in the 13th over to get rid of Pant, and then in the 14th over to dismiss de Kock. Pant struck nine fours and two sixes in his 40-ball knock while de Kock hit four boundaries and one six.

Sanju Samson (19 not out) and JP Duminy (13 not out) played sensibly to ensure the team got past the victory line with ease.

Earlier, Gujarat got off to a poor start, losing their top order within the first four overs. For a change, Gujarat openers Brendon McCullum (1) and Dwayne Smith (15) did not click. 

Zaheer set the things rolling by dismissing McCullum; Nadeem then claimed two wickets in the next over to hand Delhi an early advantage. The left-arm spinner had Smith caught at long-on, and Aaron Finch (5) at short fine leg.

With the hosts struggling at 24/3, Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina (24) and Karthik tried to pull their team out of woods with a 51-run partnership, but Raina was stumped for a 20-ball 24 off Amit Mishra. Ravindra Jadeja (36 not out) joined Karthik and the duo added 52 runs off 33 deliveries, helping the team draw closer to 150-mark. — IANS

Scoreboard

Gujarat Lions
D Smith c Morris b Nadeem 15
B McCullum b Khan 1 
A Finch c Pant b Nadeem 5
S Raina st de Kock b Mishra 24
D Karthik b Mohammed Shami 53 
R Jadeja not out 36 
J Faulkner b Morris 7
I Kishan run out 2
Extras (lb 3, w 3) 6
Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 149
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17, 3-24, 4-75, 5-127, 6-138, 7-149  

Bowling
S Nadeem 3-0-23-2
C Morris 4-0-32-1
Z Khan 4-0-27-1
Mohammed Shami 4-0-31-1
A Mishra 3-0-19-1

Delhi Daredevils 
Q de Kock c Smith b Kaushik 46 
R Pant c Karthik b Jadeja 69
S Samson not out 19
JP Duminy not out 13
Extras (lb 1, w 1, nb 1) 3
Total (2 wickets; 17.2 overs) 150 
Fall of wickets: 1-115, 2-121 

Bowling
P Kumar 2-0-20-0
D Kulkarni 2-0-24-0
S Raina 4-0-34-0
S Kaushik 4-0-29-1
D Smith 2-0-12-0
J Faulkner 1-0-9-0
R Jadeja 2.2-0-21-1

MoM: Rishab Pant

Today’s match
Punjab vs Kolkata
Live on Sony Six, 8pm