No capital gain for DC
New Delhi, May 14
Commanding fifties from Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs were complemented by a clinical bowling effort as Delhi Capitals kept their slim IPL playoffs hopes alive with a 19-run win over Lucknow Super Giants in their final league fixture here today. Realistically, though, DC are all but out of the running for the knockouts.
Porel (58 off 33 balls) and Shai Hope (38 off 27 balls) shared 92 runs off 49 balls to give the hosts an aggressive start. Tristan Stubbs (57 not out off 25) then hammered three fours and four maximums in his blitzkrieg and added 47 and 50 runs with Rishabh Pant (33) and Axar Patel (14 not out) to power DC to 208/4.
The bowlers then joined the party to restrict the visitors to 189/9, despite a belligerent 27-ball 61 from Nicholas Pooran and a 33-ball 58 not out by Arshad Khan.
After the loss in their penultimate league game, LSG are all but out of the playoffs race. DC’s win paved the way for Rajasthan Royals’ qualification to the playoffs.
Chasing 209, LSG couldn’t recover from a nightmarish start as Ishant Sharma (3/34), who replaced Porel as impact sub, removed both openers KL Rahul (5), Quinton de Kock (12) and Deepak Hooda (0) in his opening spell.
Marcus Stoinis (5) was then bamboozled by Axar, while Stubbs had Ayush Badoni (6) caught at the boundary line as LSG lost half their side for 71 in the 8th over.
Pooran hit six fours and four sixes to keep the run rate high as LSG reached 100 in the 11th over. But once he was dismissed by Mukesh Kumar, with Axar producing a special effort, Arshad took centerstage slamming five sixes and three fours to keep them in the chase. Arshad added 33 runs each with Krunal Pandya (18) and Yudhvir Singh (14) to bring down the equation to 29 off 12 balls. But Mukesh and Rasikh Salam bowled superbly to limit them in the end. — PTI
Brief scores
- DC: 208/4 in 20 overs (Porel 58, Stubbs 57*, Hope 38; Naveen-ul-haq 2/41) vs LSG: 189/9 in 20 overs (Pooran 61, Arshad 58*; Ishant 3/34)
Monday’s result
- KKR vs GT — Game abandoned due to rain
