Sameer Rizvi struck a brilliant unbeaten half-century as an all-round Delhi Capitals beat Lucknow Super Giants by six wickets in their Indian Premier League.
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LUCKNOW — Sameer Rizvi gave ample display of his talent, coming in as an 'Impact Substitute', as Delhi Capitals cantered home by six wickets against Lucknow Super Giants despite initial stutters to make a winning start in the IPL here on Wednesday.
Chasing a lowly target of 142, DC were reduced to 26 for 4 within first five overs but Rizvi (70 not out off 47 balls), substituting T Natarajan, conjured an unbroken 119-run stand for the fifth wicket with the seasoned Tristan Stubbs (39 not out off 32 balls) to ensure full points in just 17.1 overs.
Rizvi showed exemplary maturity as he first saw off a spell from Mohammed Shami (1/28 in 4 overs), Mohsin Khan (1/19 in 4 overs) and Prince Yadav (2/20 in 3 overs). In all, he hit five fours and four sixes to make a chase look ridiculously easy on a seamer-friendly track.
Once he played the ramp shot over keeper's head for a six off Anrich Nortje, he opened up. The turning point was Shahbaz Ahmed's lone over -- the 10th of the DC innings. Rizvi slog swept him behind square, pulled him to the square leg and tickled one through fine leg with 16 coming off that over.
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After that, there was no stopping Rizvi, who lofted Aiden Markram over long-on and pulled Mohsin for good measure as he slowly and surely knocked the stuffing out of LSG's sails.
To defend a small total, LSG needed early breakthroughs and Shami was right on the money as KL Rahul was gone for first-ball duck trying to slash one over point.
Mohsin, who was playing his first game in one year, got one to bounce a tad bit extra and had Nitish Rana caught at slip.
Pathum Nissanka's first game ended in a disappointing note as he mistimed a pull off Prince Yadav with Rishabh Pant taking a well judged catch running backwards.
DC's most dependable player, their skipper Axar Patel got a beauty from Prince Yadav, a delivery that tailed in getting him clean bowled.
But then, Rizvi and Stubbs had other ideas as they slowly and surely ensured an impressive win.
Earlier, LSG put up an embarrassing batting display with some questionable tactical calls to be shot out for 141 in 18.4 overs after Delhi Capitals skipper Axar opted to bowl first.
Even though the Ekana Stadium wicket wasn't a belter, there couldn't be any tangible excuse for LSG unit for its pathetic batting display.
A fit-again T Natarajan (3/29 in 4 overs), Kuldeep Yadav (2/31 in 4 overs) and the brilliant Lungi Ngidi (3/27 in 3.4 overs), who bowled perhaps a contender for the 'ball of the tournament', made life miserable for the home team, which looked as bad on field as it had seemed on paper as per the pre-tournament predictions.
Captain Rishabh Pant, in a surprising move from the team's perspective, broke a successful opening pair of Aiden Markram and Mitchell March and promoted himself at the top of the order.
Pant (7 off 9 balls) started with a nice bowler's back-drive off Mukesh Kumar but in the next over was run-out at the non-striker's end when the bowler was able to get finger tip onto a smashing straight hit from Marsh.
But to be frank, Pant didn't look comfortable for once despite that opening boundary and it seemed more like a desperation to get his India T20 slot back.
Aiden Markram (11) hit a six and a four but DC skipper Axar Patel's wicket-to-wicket delivery breached his defence.
The highly-rated Ayush Badoni (0) edged one from T Natarajan that was angled across but it was Ngidi's new found confidence with execution of slower deliveries which became the standout moment of the first half.
It was a floating off-cutter that beat the dangerous Nicholas Pooran (8 off 8 balls), whose philosophy hinges on bat-speed saw the loopy trajectory of the delivery dip late. The ball sneaked between the bat and pad to hit the stumps.
In the case of Ngidi, there was no perceptible change in his arm-speed as he considerably took the pace off.
Ngidi, who has perfected the pace-off deliveries with variable lengths tightened the noose on the LSG batters. He also accounted Shahbaz Ahmed with a wide slower yorker, which is a difficult art to execute.
Regarding Kuldeep, he got a bit of punishment initially but he did the job well getting the dangerous Marsh with a googly that saw the bat face turn in his hand and leading edge flying to mid-off.