Punjab nearer to play-off berth, floor Delhi
Punjab played average cricket throughout the match but still floored a listless Delhi to get one step closer to the play-off berth. Punjab have now won three must-win matches in a row and two more wins should be sufficient for them to qualify. Delhi lacked energy in all departments of the game, they look all set for the ‘wooden spoon’ courtesy this 29 run loss.
The setting at the picturesque Dharamshala was near perfect for cricket but the action on the ground was nowhere near perfect. Punjab batted first on a surface that had lot of carry and swing for the fast bowlers, their batsmen missed more than they hit but an abject fielding display by Delhi let them off the hook and succeeded in posting a respectable 170 on the board. Although, the hosts returned the favour while fielding, Delhi batsmen lacked purpose rather than intent to gift Punjab the victory.
The pitch conditions were however balanced by a lightning fast outfield and short boundaries, even miss timed pulls raced to the ropes. The Delhi batting was once again pretty ordinary. Their openers, Naman Ojha and David Warner started aggressively to take them to 52 in 8 overs. At this point, the chase was very much on. Both the openers did connect some big shots but the scoring rate hardly got over 6. Once the Australian was dismissed in the tenth over the slide began. Delhi’s only hope after that was middle-order pair of Venugopal Rao and Irfan Patha, however the duo was dismissed within a space of two runs to seal their fate.
Punjab bowlers looked a lot better than their Delhi counterparts, who sprayed the ball on a favorable surface. The pace trio of Ryan Harris, Praveen Kumar and Srivastava got the ball to swing prodigiously but the real surprise was leggie Piyush Chawla with a three wicket burst that halted the Delhi batting. He was economical as well, just conceding 16 runs in his four overs.
Earlier, Punjab struggled for most part of the innings but some inexplicable lapses in the field by the ragged Delhi fielders let Punjab literally run away with the match. Skipper Adam Gilchrist once again failed to take full advantage of a missed run-out opportunity and was dismissed trying to slog Morkel for 9. His opening partner Paul Valthaty was under duress with a number of hits and misses. But, he managed to stay alive, partly because he was let off in the field couple of times. His 50 ball 62 though helped Punjab reach a big total, the innings at no point looked convincing. Mr. consistent Shaun Marsh was once again the most impressive Punjab batsman on show as he hammered 46 runs off just 28 balls with 5 boundaries and three sixes. Dinesh Karthik also played a good hand with a brisk knock of 27.
The Delhi bowlers barring Irfan Pathan and Morkel were just going through the motions. Irfan got the in-swing going after a long time and Morkel got some boumnce to force the batsmen play some ugly shots. Left arm spinner Sriram came in for some stick from Marsh as he conceded 25 runs in a single over. The fielding performance by Delhi can at best be described as dismal. There were missed run-out opportunities, dropped catches and horrible overthrows. In the end, it was more a case of Delhi not wanting to win rather than Punjab pressing for a victory.
© eContent.in
