NEW DELHI: A 19-run victory saw Delhi Capitals maintain a slim chance of making the IPL playoffs, thanks to Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs who both scored solid half-centuries in their final league match against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
The hosts made a fiery start with Porel (58) and Shai Hope (38) sharing 92 runs off 49 balls. In his blitzkrieg, Tristan Stubbs (25-ball 57*) hit three fours and four sixes and then added 47 with Rishabh Pant (33) and fifty with Axar Patel (14*) to lift DC to 208 for 4.
DC bowlers joined the party as LSG had a devastating chase losing four wickets inside powerplay that eventually resulted in limiting visitors to 189 for 9.
However, Nicholas Pooran’s belligerent knock of 27-ball 61 and Arshad Khan’s unbeaten innings of 33-ball 58 went in vain as this defeat has now made LSG’s playoffs chances a distant dream.
KL Rahul, the captain after the defeat admitted that chasing has been an issue for them throughout their campaign but it particularly hurt them when they lost four wickets within power play overs today.
“The par score was probably around the low two hundreds mark. That’s been our problem throughout the season – every time we lose wickets,” said Rahul post-match presentation.
Although they were continuously losing wickets he praised home team’s aggressive approach at bat too.
“I think that it was same from ball one till the last one. So when we got Jake in the first over, we started out well. But even when the wickets are falling, they keep coming hard,” said Rahul.
DC won seven games and suffered an equal number of defeats during this year’s league games
But lucknow have another game left while standing at twelve points.
