Mishra spins a web
Just two deliveries are required to describe the kind of dominance the Delhi Daredevils managed to exert on the Kings XI Punjab. The first was a classical leg-break — slow and loopy — tossed above Shaun Marsh’s eye-line. It tempted him to come down the track, but Marsh gets beaten in flight.
The ball pitches and deviates, and Quinton de Kock did a pretty competent job behind the stumps. Marsh was dismissed for 13 immediately after Powerplay.The second was a googly, one which fizzed off the turf to trap David Miller plumb in front. In the end, these two vastly contrasting deliveries from Amit Mishra - fetching him wickets in the first delivery of the opening two overs - was enough to derail what looked like a formidable batting line-up of Kings XI Punjab.
Mishra proved to his captain Zaheer Khan’s trump card. More than anything it was the sense of occasion — the 33-year-old was featuring in his 100th IPL game. He was also aided by the manner in which his captain used him as a wicket-taking option up front. Brought into the attack in the 7th over, Punjab were sitting pretty at 1/37. Instead of going on the defensive, Zaheer went for the kill, keeping a slip straightaway. Buoyed by his captain’s confidence, Mishra hit his straps immediately. He bowled tidy lines, rarely erred in length and cleverly mixed his pace. Punjab, who were banking heavily on their two foreign superstars — Miller and Glenn Maxwell — were clueless to the guiles of Mishra. By the time, Maxwell was dismissed, Punjab’s were meandering into oblivion. Mishra was supported by offie Jayant Yadav, who scalped Axar Patel. Punjab would eventually end their essay at 111/9, but surprisingly, Mishra, the star of the evening, would not finish his quota of four overs. His three-over burst yielded him four wickets, enough to walk away with the Player-of-the-Match award. Mishra’s record in IPL is enviable. In 100 games, he has picked 116 wickets, putting him second to only Lasith Malinga (143) in the list of the highest wicket-takers in this format. For a bowler of such amazing consistency, it’s baffling that he has featured in only seven T20 internationals. What’s even more surprising is that six of those games were played at the World T20 in Bangladesh two years ago, where he finished with a haul of 10 wickets.
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