*PBKS VS DC REVIEW- MATCH 64*
*ROUSSOW ON A RAMPAGE AS DELHI CROSS 200 FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON:*
After barely surviving the initial burst from the Punjab bowlers on what looked like a spicy pitch, Delhi made merry and scored at a rapid pace. A 24 run over from KG and a 16 run over from Arshdeep brought back some momentum to DC, after which there was no stopping them. Their openers clicked today and Shaw, in his comeback game looked good as he notched up a 38 ball 54 and his partner Warner raced to a 31 ball 46. All PBKS bowlers were treated like club level cricketers barring Chahar who once again remained economical as PBKS conceded a massive total. The dismissal of Warner came only in the eleventh over, at a point, when DC were cruising at 103/1 after 11. Curran got the better of Shaw soon enough as the openers departed but what followed this was the heavy entry of Roussow. The protea was on the brink of being kicked out of the XI before this game but today he brought his A game to the table, making use of the conditions on offer to his advantage and hitting a flurry of maximums and boundaries in his power packed innings of 82 off a mere 37 balls, striking easily at over 200 and bossing the game pretty comfortably. Phil Salt, who got a demotion today played a nice little cameo of 26 runs as DC finished on 213 at the expense of just 2 wickets, that too, of the openers. PBKS were clueless with their resources and Dhawan failed to utilise his bowlers well. The fact that Brar bowled a majority of his overs at the death vs a left handed batter who has set on a pitch that favoured him less, was one of those baffling tactics by the Punjab skipper tonight.
*LIVINGSTONE GIVES HIS HEART AND SOUL TO THE CHASE ONLY TO FALL SHORT AT THE END:*
This chase began on an unusual note as Prabhsimran went onto play a maiden over against Khaleel. On top of this, Dhawan fell for a golden duck the very next over and surely, the chase wasn’t going to be easy. But Taide and Prabhsimran picked up some lost momentum to finish on 47 after 6. Just as they did this, the latter fell to Axar, digging a hole for PBKS. Out came Livingstone as he joined hands with Taide- the duo batted for a total of 8 overs together and aggregated about 80 runs which in an ideal scenario is good but it wasn’t enough for this chase. PBKS were dented with double strikes from Nortje in the 16th over just when the two were planning to go berserk. As Livingstone was left alone to deal with this mountain to climb, he fell short on partners as Jitesh and Shahrukh, the two renowned finishers of this lineup could not deliver the goods today. Liam kept fighting till his final breath, took the game deep and when a 6 was required at the end to reach his 100, he wad dismissed. Liam tried but it was a little too hard a hurdle to cross at the very end, handing DC a convincing 15 run win. They played for pride and were successful in stealing it from Punjab.