It was a big show from Sanju Samson who scored Indian Premier League (IPL) 10’s first century followed by Chris Morris’ quickfire fury. But, it was Zaheer Khan who set the stage on fire afterwards guiding Delhi Daredevils (DD) to an easy win against Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) by 97 runs. The veteran fast bowler and skipper Zaheer picked up 3 wickets for just 20 runs in a matter of 3 overs.
Zaheer’s first spell set the tone in the second inning as he drew first blood. Chasing a gigantic total of 206 runs, RPS were off to a decent start with stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Mayank Agarwal opening the innings.
Rahane-Agarwal were building the foundation of their chase, getting into the groove, picking up Shahbaz Nadeem for 10 runs in first over and playing Pat Cummins cautiously. When Zaheer came into the attack, their first intention was to attack him. In Zaheer’s first over there was not a single ball that was a dot until the last one. Rahane and Agarwal were picking up singles and twos, finding the gaps with ease.
Watch the full video here: Fall of wickets
Zaheer straightaway knew that Rahane was going to try hit a boundary off the last over to bring things into balance on the last ball of the over like they did in the first two overs.
On seeing Rahane gearing up for a big shot, Zaheer bowled a delivery that held onto the pitch and then came back. Rahane could not clear the mid-off fielder, Samson took the catch in that position as he could do nothing wrong. Zaheer had taken the key wicket and pushed RPS right from the beginning. Well, he did not just stop there.
After Rahane’s wicket, Mayank was leading the RPS batting lineup with Faf du Plessis on the other end. Mayank was picking the gap and trying to hit boundaries and he was the one who was going to Zaheer’s next target.
Zaheer bowled dots after dots to Mayank to frustrate him as he was itching to get off strike or hit a boundary to release the pressure. Weel, things only panned out the way Zaheer had planned. It was the slower delivery that did the trick on the fifth ball of his second over.
Mayank went the ball on the up trying to go over the top and like Rahane, he failed as well. This time it was Chris Morris who took the catch at extra cover, making sure that RPS openers are back into the pavilion. The 38-year-old had kept the pressure on and succeeded in taking his second wicket in the fourth over of RPS’ innings.
Not just with his bowling but his tactics, bowling changes made sure that RPS inning only goes downhill from there giving DD a gigantic win. There were a few late fireworks from Deepak Chahar but Zaheer threw water on them as well getting his third wicket of the game.
Zaheer has shown the world that his fitness has not suffered even after taking a break of 9 months. He will come back with the same force every time and haunt the bowlers each and every time he sets foot on the field.
Moral of the story: The ‘Old Warhorse’ is still capable of doing the damage.
