Twitter Reactions: Giant killers KXIP stun table toppers DC with an authoritative win despite Shikhar Dhawan's sensational ton

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) are turning out to be giant killers in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). After spending the first half of the season at the bottom of the points table, they have won three on the bounce now, defeating top two teams of the tournament, to jump to the fifth position. They have certainly got a realistic chance to make it to the playoffs with all the winning momentum.

This win over the Delhi Capitals (DC) was absolutely dominating with all of their batsmen smashing the opposition bowlers out of the park. For a change, KL Rahul failed scoring only 15 runs off 10 balls. Mayank Agarwal also got run-out after being involved in a ugly mix-up with Nicholas Pooran.

However, Chris Gayle and Pooran launched a brutal assault on the DC bowlers to take KXIP way ahead in the chase. The Universe Boss took on the most inexperienced bowler Tushar Deshpande early in the innings and slammed him for 26 runs in the over. Ravi Ashwin got the better of him in the very next over but Pooran took charge then and didn’t spare any of the DC bowlers.

The left-hander hit some lusty blows affecting the confidence of the bowlers and raced away to a 27-ball half-century. While he was in the middle, Pooran made sure that the required run-rate came below six. At the other end, Glenn Maxwell finally spent some time in the middle and showed glimpses of returning to the form. He scored 32 off 24 balls and got out with the team needing only 18 runs to win.

Deepak Hooda and Jimmy Neesham then duly completed the chase without any panic with an over and five wickets in hand. This is their third consecutive win and finally, the team is playing to its potential and the fight for the fourth position is spiced up now.

Shikhar Dhawan slams his second consecutive ton

After opting to bat first, it was all about Shikhar Dhawan for DC throughout the innings. The southpaw just continued from where he left off against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) during his unbeaten ton and played some exciting strokes. His opening partner Prithvi Shaw once again got out early while the skipper Shreyas Iyer also missed out on scoring runs heavily.

But it didn’t make any difference for Dhawan as he kept playing his shots and churned out quick runs. After 10 overs, DC were 83/2 and looked set to post a score around 180. However, for some strange reasons, the run-scoring came down. A fair share of its credit also should go to the KXIP bowlers, especially spinner, Murugan Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi, who bowled well.

Rishabh Pant also played a quite a few dot balls which sucked a bit of a momentum out of the innings. To make it worse, he got out after taking so many deliveries to set. His 20-ball 14 and then Marcus Stoinis also not being able to hit at will, led to KXIP keeping a check on the run-rate.

At the same time, Dhawan was batting beautifully and despite him scoring boundaries, DC were able to up the ante as they would’ve liked due to the batsmen getting in and getting out at the other end. The Capitals’ opener got to his second successive century, the first batsman to do so in the IPL, in the penultimate over of the innings off just 57 balls.

However, KXIP did extremely well in the death overs conceding only 25 runs in last three overs. Mohammed Shami has to be specially mentioned here as he went for only 13 runs in his last two overs. DC, despite a stunning 106* from Dhawan, could reach only 164 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs. Unfortunately, it didn’t prove to be enough with KXIP batsmen coming hard at their bowlers and Dhawan scintillating knock went in vain.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: