Zaheer Khan made an impressive comeback from a year—long hiatus complementing Nathan Coulter—Nile brilliantly as Delhi Daredevils spanked Kings XI Punjab by 9 wickets in an Indian Premier League cricket tournament match, here today.
Chasing a paltry target of 119, Daredevils romped home with 6.1 overs to spare as openers Mayank Agarwal (52 not out) and Shreyas Iyer (54) put on a comfortable 106—run partnership for the first wicket to seal the issue in style.
The home team could not have asked for a better performance from their bowlers in their last home match as they restricted Punjab to 118 for eight after winning the toss.
Coming into bowl in a competitive match after 363 days, Zaheer removed Virender Sehwag (1) off the second ball and Manan Vohra (1) in his very next over as he finished with figures of 2/17 from four overs.
After Zaheer blew the top two away, Coulter—Nile caused a lot of damage in the middle and lower order with figures of 4/20 in four overs as it deservingly earned him man—of—the match award.
There was not much KXIP could have done after putting on board such a total and Delhi easily crossed the finishing line without much fuss.
Needing under six runs an over, Iyer and Agarwal went abut their business calmly. Iyer’s 54 came off 40 balls with four fours and three sixes while Agarwal’s faced 40 balls in his knock and hit six fours and six.
Delhi now has eight points and they moved up to number four, replacing Royal Challengers Bangalore (7) while Punjab remained at the bottom with 4 points.