The match was no great shakes with very little competition let alone a cricket duel. Punjab Kings put to bat first lost wickets regularly but seemed allergic to making runs. They stopped at 111 in a bizarre run out as Mustafiz bowled an excellent final giving only 4/5. In the last ball , Arshadeep moved to get a run but the batter wasn’t interested and so he was marooned and was run out casually by the keeper. Everyone seemed perplexed by it all including the Delhi Capitals who were playing under the shadow of a Covid scare. It summed up Punjab kings well on the day, lost and ran out.
The Fizz was back and many Bangladeshis watched the match with some degree of anxiety, hoping that nobody would do a 28 in a single over to Fizz like the last game. Thank heavens no one did and Fizz had a decent figure of 1 for 28 runs with 7 rpo.
PK was hardly in a murderous mood and all the bowlers were spared the agony of being bashed to the boundaries. Confidence in the Fizz is still there and he looked fine in the field . Khaleel,Llatif, Axar and Kuldeep all got 2 wickets and basically the bowlers did their job so well that the match was basically over once Punjab folded their innings.
In the chase, Delhi barely crossed the 10th over taking only 63 runs to reach their target. Warner was fantastic in his 60 and had a strike rate of 200%. He was partnered by Prithvi Shaw who was out on 41 with a strike rate of 205 %. It was a great match for watching boundaries and both hit at will. Shaw was the only wicket Delhi lost and Sarfaraz coming in next didn’t have to do much before victory was won.
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It was awfully one sided. As the Punjab captain Mayank Agarwal said, “We didn't bat and bowl well, we just need to move on from today.” That spirit was on display sadly for their fans.
So how does one rate a match that was predictable as soon as just one innings was over? Not much fun. IPL T20 is an adrenalin fix and that means the dose has to be increased regularly to keep the viewer hooked. After 2 sort of not very exciting matches in a row, even the Fizz being taken to the dhobi seems worth watching again. Oh, the dangerous pleasures of T20 cricket cocaine.