IPL 2018 Report Card: Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman shine for Kings XI Punjab; Gautam Gambhir fails to impress

Delhi Daredevils continued to find new ways of losing close matches as they suffered defeat against Kings XI Punjab, once again, that too at their home ground. [caption id=“attachment_4443819” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kings XI Punjab’s Ankit Rajpoot celebrates the wicket of Delhi Daredevils batsman Prithvi Shaw. AFP[/caption] Asked to bat first, Punjab managed only 143/8 in their 20 overs as the Daredevils bowlers stuck to their task and kept taking wickets at regular intervals. Liam Plunkett impressed in his IPL debut for the Daredevils with a scintillating spell of 3/17. On the other hand, Daredevils started off well with Prithvi Shaw’s cameo but lost their way in the middle, ultimately falling short by five runs. Shreyas Iyer tried his best till the last delivery of the match but couldn’t get his team over the line. Let’s have a look at how all the 22 players fared in the match: Ankit Rajpoot - 10/10 Ankit Rajpoot showed his real worth on Monday as he helped his team to a four-run victory over the Delhi Daredevils with a fiery spell of 2/23 in his four overs. He pushed the Daredevils on the backfoot with the wickets of Prithvi Shaw and Glenn Maxwell in back-to-back overs inside Powerplay. He was also adjudged the ‘Man of the Match’ for his defining spell. Andrew Tye - 10/10 Andrew Tye became the owner of the Purple Cap with the wickets of Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir and all-rounder Rahul Tewatia. Both of his strikes came at crucial stages of the match. Gambhir fell prey to him when the Daredevils needed their skipper to carry them all the way through and he claimed Tewatia’s wicket when he was threatening to take the game away from Punjab. Mujeeb Ur Rahman - 10/10 The Afghan spinner claimed the two most important wickets in the match. One was of Rishabh Pant who played a whirlwind knock of 80 odd runs in the previous game. And the other was that of Shreyas Iyer on the very last delivery of the last over of the match with five runs to defend of it. He ended up with superb bowling figures of 4-0-25-2. Liam Plunkett - 10/10 Plunkett made his IPL debut memorable with a superb three-wicket haul. His wickets included that of KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Mayank Agarwal. All three of those wickets came at three different and crucial stages of the match. Shreyas Iyer - 9/10 Iyer tried his best to take Delhi over the line till the very last delivery of the game. He played a gem of an innings of 57 runs off just 45 deliveries when other batsmen were tumbling like a house of cards. Trent Boult - 9/10 Boult started Daredevils’ bowling nicely with two tight overs at the top. Then he returned at the death once again to claim the wickets of Ravichandran Ashwin and Andrew Tye. He finished up with a spell of 3-0-21-2. Avesh Khan - 8/10 The Daredevils debutant bowled with pace and the intent to take wickets as he returned bowling figures of 4-0-36-2. His victims included two hard hitting batsmen in Aaron Finch and Yuvraj Singh. Ravichandran Ashwin-8/10 Ashwin gave an example of his brilliant mind as a captain as he marshaled his troops superbly to defend a total as low as 143 runs. Apart from that, he bowled four tight overs conceding just 19 runs and thus choked the flow of runs during the middle overs completely. Karun Nair - 7/10 Nair looked assured in his batting approach as he continued his good run of form. He held one end during the middle overs and played a good knock of 34 runs off just 32 deliveries that helped Punjab get to a respectable total. Daniel Christian - 7/10 Although Christian could not make a meaningful contribution with the bat, he had bowled a superb three-over spell earlier in the match. He gave away just 17 runs and also took the important wicket of David Miller. Prithvi Shaw - 6/10 Shaw played a nice little cameo of 22 runs off just 10 deliveries at the top of the order. His short burst helped the Daredevils off to a quick start, but he failed to cash in on the opportunity and make it big. KL Rahul - 6/10 Rahul looked good during the time he batted. He showed sublime timing as he hit three fours and a six before departing for a 15-ball 23. Rahul Tewatia - 6/10 Tewatia wasn’t used much with the ball in this match as he bowled just one over for six runs. However, he walked out to bat at No 7 for the Daredevils and threatened to take the match away from Punjab for a while with his 21 ball knock of 24. Mayank Agarwal - 6/10 Agarwal got off to a start but he threw it away. He scored 21 runs off just 16 deliveries before Plunkett cleaned him up. David Miller - 6/10 Miller got two lives. Yet he could not make it big. However, he played some nice shots in his 19-ball knock of 26 runs, thus stitching a decent little partnership with Nair. Amit Mishra - 5/10 Mishra bowled well but couldn’t pick up any wickets to help his side’s cause. He gave away 33 runs in his four overs. Glenn Maxwell - 4/10 Maxwell failed to make it big with the bat as he departed after hitting one six and a four in a 10-ball knock of 12 runs. He bowled an over as well and conceded only four runs. However, these little contributions were not enough at the end. Yuvraj Singh - 3/10 Yuvraj only looks like a pale shadow of his past now as it seems age and fitness issues have got the better of him. He struggled at the middle managing only 14 runs in 17 deliveries before getting dismissed. Barinder Sran - 2/10 Sran returned with expensive bowling figures as he kept offering length balls to the batsmen despite the fact that they were hitting it with ease. He leaked 45 runs in his four overs but bowled well in the penultimate over of the innings returning with the wicket of Liam Plunkett. Aaron Finch - 1/10 Aaron Finch’s poor run of form continued as he fell prey to young Rajpoot’s bowling for just a couple of runs. Rishab Pant - 1/10 Pant, Delhi’s hero from the last match, failed this time as he perished to Rahman’s spin for an individual contribution of just four runs. Gautam Gambhir - 1/10 The Daredevils skipper failed to make a contribution at the top of the order as he departed after a 13-ball struggle of four runs.