DC's lethal speedster Kagiso Rabada dismissed dangerous looking Nicholas Pooran in the 13th over to break a 69-run stand between him and Glenn Maxwell but it was too late as the task for KXIP was not tough. Maxwell had the opportunity to make most of the chance of proving his value as an all-rounder in the squad but he failed to finish again for his team and was departed by Rabada for (32 runs off 24 balls).
Chasing 165 for the win, Punjab sent out their regular openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul in the middle. In-form KL Rahul, the leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League, was looking in great touch tonight with the bat but unfortunately he saw a rare failure tonight and failed to contribute with a major innings as DC's experienced spinner Axar Patel got the prized wicket of the KXIP skipper. After getting hit for a four off his first ball, he bowled a beauty to get Rahul mis-hit the ball to Sams at mid-on for 15 runs off 11 balls.
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After Rahul's departure, Chris Gayle joined Mayank Agarwal in the middle. As soon as Gayle started to bat, he went all guns blazing against the DC bowlers smashed 25 runs off Tushar Deshpande's over but veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin cleaned the Windies megastar for 29 in the next over -- fifth time in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Things went from bad to worse for Punjab after this. A horrible mix-up between Pooran and Mayank (5 runs off 9 balls) saw the latter get run-out for 5 as KXIP lost two wickets in the same over.
The match was now completely in Delhi's favour after the terrible mix-up between Pooran and Mayank but Nicholas Pooran lead Punjab's fightback with power hitting and hammered DC bowlers for fours and sixes. Kings XI Punjab raced to 100 in the ninth over with Pooran keeping Punjab afloat despite losing KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle cheaply.
After that terrible mix-up, Nicholas Pooran (53 runs off 28 balls) compensated for it by amassing a sparkling half-century off just 27 balls but after that was cleaned up in the very next ball, gloving a short ball from Kagiso Rabada behind to the wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant. The equation went down to 24 runs required to win from last five overs with Glenn Maxwell and Deepak Hooda in the middle.
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James Neesham, brought in place of Chris Jordan, took KXIP over the line with a six off the last ball of the 19th over.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals: 164/5 wkts in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 106 not out, Shreyas Iyer 12; Mohammed Shami 2/28) lost to KXIP: 167/5 wkts (Nicholas Pooran 53, Glenn Maxwell 32, Kasigo Rabada 2/27) by five wickets.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals won the toss and opted to bat first against KXIP. While Punjab chose to bring in Jimmy Neesham for this game by benching Chris Jordan, Delhi were boosted by return of their hard-hitting batsman Rishbah Pant in the playing XI. Delhi also decided to include Shimron Hetymer and Daniel Sams in their playing XI.
A stunning ton from senior opener Shikhar Dhawan propelled Delhi Capitals to 164/5 against Kings XI Punjab at Dubai on Tuesday. Delhi Capitals were off to a great star as they managed to attain 53 runs in the first six overs (powerplay) even after losing star opener Prithvi Shaw for just seven runs.
Shikhar Dhawan continued his fabulous batting form from the last game, and scored runs all over the ground in style to get past 5000 runs in IPL with a huge six. As soon as Dhawan scored his ton, he became first player in the history of IPL to score back-to-back hundreds.
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Daniel Sams, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Tushar Deshpande, Kagiso Rabada
Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, James Neesham, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh