Amit Mishra stars in DD win at Kotla

The Delhi Daredevils opened their account in VIVO IPL 2016 with a comprehensive win over Kings XI Punjab on Friday. After opting to field first, DD, playing in their backyard at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, restricted the visitors to 111 for 9 and then knocked off the runs in 13.3 overs. The win, with 39 balls remaining, was DD’s third-biggest win and third consecutive win against KXIP.

Earlier in the evening, on a pitch with a scattering of grass, Zaheer Khan set the tone bowling a testing first over. In the second over, the hosts picked up their first wicket by means of a run out – the run out coming after Zaheer Khan had dropped a catch but recovered quickly to catch Murali Vijay, who was attempting a third run, short of his ground.

Zaheer Khan continued to test the batsmen – getting the ball to move both ways – and bowled a maiden in the third over of the innings. KXIP survived the testing period early on, reaching 37 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay period.

Enter Amit Mishra, and turned the match on its head. The leg-spinner, who was playing his 100th IPL match, broke the backbone of KXIP; he struck in his first over when he deceived Shaun Marsh in the air and had him stumped. In his next over, he struck twice – dismissing the deadly David Miller and Glenn Maxwell – both batsmen being dismissed in the same over for the second time in two matches. In his third and final over, Mishra saw the back of Manan Vohra (32 from 24 balls), who had survived the storm until then. In a period of play spanning 4.4 overs, KXIP had slipped to 59 for 5 – losing 22 runs for four wickets.

Mohit Sharma, batting at number nine, and Pardeep Sahu, batting at number ten, used the long handle to good effect; they scored 15 from 8 balls and 18 from 12 balls respectively and helped their team to past the 100-run mark. KXIP, who were 73 for 7 at one stage, finished their 20 overs at 111 for 9.

Amit Mishra, who in an interview before the match had sounded out a warning asking teams to be wary of leg-spinners, was the wrecker-in-chief; he finished with figures of 3-0-11-4. The DD skipper Zaheer Khan was impressive too; the 37-year old finished with figures of 1-14 and his 4-over spell had 17 dot balls. Chris Morris and Jayant Yadav were the other DD bowlers to taste success.

The run-chase was a straightforward affair. Though opener Shreyas Iyer was strangled down the leg-side early on, DD didn’t have too much difficulty in chasing down the runs. Quinton de Kock, who was dropped when he was on 7, made the visitors pay for their largesse, scoring his third IPL half-century; he, and Sanju Samson (33 from 32 balls) added 91 runs for the second wicket and took their team to the brink. de Kock remained unbeaten on 59 made from 42 balls and decorated with nine boundaries and a six, while Pawan Negi hit the winning runs in style, depositing the leg-spinner Pardeep Sahu into the stands at midwicket.