Gautam Gambhir scored 55 on his return to Delhi Daredevils. (Source: IPL0
Gautam Gambhir scored a fifty on his first match as captain of the Delhi Daredevils. This was also his first match for the Daredevils since his departure from the capital back in 2011. Gambhir opened the batting with Colin Munro after Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field first.
While the opening stand didn’t last long with Munro being dismissed for four by Mujeeb ur Rahman, Gambhir struck up a 42-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer. Gambhir did most of the scoring in that stand and later also managed to put up a 34-run stand with Rishab Pant.
IPL 2018 Live Streaming Live Score KXIP vs DD Live Match 2
Gambhir’s innings was punctuated by five fours and one six. He didn’t go for too many flashy shots for a better part of it. This was his 36th IPL half-century and he is now level with David Warner for the most 50s in the tournament’s history. With the half-century to his name, Gambhir has now taken the number two spot with most number of runs against one opponent. He has now scored 726 runs against Kings XI Punjab and is behind Chris Gayle who has 797 runs against the same side. Interestingly, Gayle is now a part of KXIP after he wasn’t retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier.
Delighted to see the start that Gambhir has got in #IPL2018. And he has a couple of finishers to follow.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) 8 April 2018
Former India opener, Aakash Chopra too hailed Gambhir’s efforts.
Don’t want to jinx it….but there’s isn’t an opener who plays spin better than Gambhir. GG at DD is already looking good. 😊🙌 #IPL #KXIPvDD
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) 8 April 2018
The left-hander has been part of Kolkata Knight Riders since his departure from DD and has led the Kolkata franchise to two IPL titles. Gambhir has been in good form since the domestic season where he is a part of Delhi side.
Delhi Daredevils eventually ended their innings at 166/7 in allotted 20 overs. For KXIP, Mohit Sharma and debutant Mujeeb Ur Rahman scalped two wickets apiece while R Ashwin and Axar Patel picked one each.