How Delhi Daredevils got undone by a Kings XI Punjab bowling gamble in IPL 2018

Andrew Tye and fellow Kings XI Punjab pacer Ankit Rajpoot rocked Delhi Daredevils top order with their tidy bowling and then skipper Ravichandran Ashwin gave the ball to Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the final over of their 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) match

cricket Updated: Apr 24, 2018 08:51 IST

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) bowler Mujeeb Ur Rahman (centre) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Delhi Daredevils batsman Rishabh Pant during their 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL 2018) match at the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium in New Delhi on Monday. (AFP)

When it comes to death-over bowling, Andrew Tye is the go-to man for Kings XI Punjab. However, on Monday, skipper Ravichandran Ashwin decided to hand the ball to young Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and the gamble worked as he conceded just 12 runs in the last six balls to clinch the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL 2018) game against Delhi Daredevils by four runs.

Tye and fellow pacer Ankit Rajpoot rocked the Delhi Daredevils top order with their tidy bowling and, within the 12th over, half of the team was back in the pavilion. But Shreyas Iyer and Rahul Tewatia stitched together a solid 47-run partnership for the sixth wicket before Tye dismissed Tewatia in his second spell. The wicket proved to be the turning point of the match for Kings XI Punjab and according to Tye, that was exactly the job given to him by the team management in New Delhi.

“Shreyas and Tewatia were taking the game away from us and my skipper wanted me to bowl the 18th over. Our plan was to dismiss any one of them so that Mujeeb will have a decent number of runs to defend in the final over,” Tye said in the post-match press conference.

KXIP skipper Ravichandran Ashwin echoed the same sentiments when he was asked about his decision to bowl out the Aussie fast bowler before the final over of the encounter.

“AJ (Tye) was my best bowler of the day, so we bowled him early because if he got Shreyas Iyer, then that’s the game and that’s why I bowled him out early. I did believe that with the lower-order and the foreign batsmen coming in, Mujeeb would be tougher to hit,” Ashwin said.

It was a good outing for Andrew Tye as he also claimed the IPL Purple Cap thanks to his two-wicket haul. He is currently tied with DD pacer Trent Boult but he edged the New Zealand international due to a slightly better combined economy rate. However, the pacer is not focused on personal records and said that his team’s victory meant way more to him.

“I am delighted to get the Purple cap and this proves how much work I have put in the competition till now. But, this will not mean anything if my team is not winning. Today, the conditions really helped us and we played really well as a unit,” he told the media.