Delhi Capitals come to party to deal Punjab Kings major blow

Punjab Kings retired out Atharva Taide as they looked to chase down 214 but ultimately fell short, despite the best efforts of Liam Livingstone

Dharamsala: Delhi Capitals 213-2, Punjab Kings 198-8 - Delhi Capitals win by 15 runs

Delhi Capitals' misfiring batting unit finally clicked as they overcame Punjab Kings in Dharamsala.

Rilee Rossouw, who has endured a poor campaign by his high standards, smashed an unbeaten 82 in just 37 balls, while Prithvi Shaw, who has had a torrid time, more than doubled his season run-tally in making 54.

Phil Salt, batting at No.4 in a rejigged order, hit two sixes in an unbeaten cameo of 26 off 14 balls. David Warner, who has come in for criticism through this IPL but is comfortably Capitals' leading run-scorer, fell four runs short of a sixth fifty of the tournament.

A total of 213 for 2 proved to be ample, with only Sam Curran – who finished with 2 for 36 from his four overs – taking a wicket for Punjab, for whom Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh were all expensive.

Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan, who earlier brilliantly caught Warner for 46, fell to his first ball in reply after Khaleel Ahmed had begun Delhi's bowling effort with a maiden.

Capitals came into this clash as the bottom-placed side in the table but have leapfrogged Sunrisers Hyderabad as a result, and at the same time put a major dent in Kings' playoff ambitions.

^{Liam Livingstone gave Punjab a fighting chance (Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images)}

Punjab did their level best: Atharva Taide became the second man to be retired out in the IPL – for 55 after using up 42 balls, having been dropped and survived a missed runout.

Liam Livingstone, who smashed 94, was also dropped – when he had scored just three – as both batters were given lives against Kuldeep Yadav's wrist-spin.

The decision to sacrifice Taide was followed immediately by the loss of Jitesh Sharma for a three-ball duck to Anrich Nortje, the culprit of the Livingstone drop. Shahrukh Khan fell five balls later to the impressive Ahmed as a forlorn, valiant chase subsided despite the best efforts of the England man.

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