Amit Mishra picked up three wickets for 17 in his four overs. (Source: IPL)As the group stages of Indian Premier League 2019 almost came to a close on Saturday, the spinners came out on top once again. In the first encounter of the day between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, it was Amit Mishra for the hosts who shined, while Ish Sodhi took the plaudits for the visitors. In the second encounter of the day between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Washington Sundar spun the web with the ball on SRH batsmen.
Amit Mishra
In the 11th over, DC’s Amit Mishra first foxed Shreyas Gopal for 12 to be stumped by Rishabh Pant and then induced a faint edge from new man Stuart Binny, which again the wicketkeeper obliged. This gave Mishra a chance for registering a hat-trick. The leg-spinner was well on course of scalping a hat-trick but Trent Boult dropped a sitter at long-off to hand Krishnappa Gowtham life. The leg-spinner was well on course of scalping a hat-trick but Trent Boult dropped a sitter at long-off to hand Krishnappa Gowtham life.
Eventually, Mishra finished with figures of 3/17 in his four overs as RR set an easy target of 116 for DC to chase. Pant hammered an unbeaten 53 to take his side to a five-wicket win.
Ish Sodhi
Chasing a modest target, Delhi made a quick start through Shikhar Dhawan (16) and Prithvi Shaw (8) before Ish Sodhi (3/26) removed both the openers in consecutive balls to give himself a hat-trick chance. Sodhi first got rid of Dhawan, in the second ball of the fourth over, holed out by Riyan Parag and then Shaw played on the next delivery.
As Ingram was settling things down with Pant, Sodhi struck again dismissing and Sodhi managed to dismiss the Proteas batsman for 12. He finished with figures of 26/3 in 3.1 overs.
Washington Sundar
After being asked to bat first, SRH got off to a good start. But Sundar weaved his magic with the ball to bring RCB back into the match. He dismissed Martin Guptill for a 23-ball 30 in the 8th over. He also picked up the crucial wicket of Manish in the same over, for nine, leaving the visitors in some trouble at 61 for three in the eighth over.
Picked in the World Cup-bound Indian team for his ‘three-dimensional’ abilities, Vijay Shankar raced to 27 with the help of three sixes but again failed to translate the start into a big score. But he became Sundar’s third scalp of the evening. He finished with figures of 3/24 in his 3 overs.
Extra credits:
Yuzvendra Chahal also picked up his 100th wicket in IPL when he lured Yusuf Pathan into playing an irresponsible shot to leave Sunrisers at 127 for five in the final ball of 16th over.
(With inputs from PTI)
