Impact substitute Rizvi anchors Delhi to a 6-wicket win over Lucknow in IPL
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Impact player substitute Sameer Rizvi struck a half-century as Delhi Capitals overcame a top-order order collapse and beat Lucknow Super Giants by six wickets in its opening game of the Indian Premier League on Wednesday. Rizvi anchored Delhi to 145-4 in 17. 1 overs with an unbeaten 70 off 47 balls after coming in for Thangarasu Natarajan in the fourth over.
Lucknow had earlier collapsed to 141 all in 18. 4 overs after Delhi skipper Axar Patel won the toss on a wicket where fast bowlers found plenty of swing with the new ball. Delhi ran into early trouble in the chase when it collapsed to 26-4 in the fifth over before Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs (39 not out) of South Africa featured in a match-winning 119-run stand.
“Playing at home, you know the conditions and that helped as my state league takes place here,” Rizvi said. “Stubbs said ‘respect the conditions’ (and) once we were set, we knew we could play our natural game. ” Lokesh Rahul got dismissed on Mohammad Shami’s first ball when he holed out at deep point while going for an extravagant inside shot over the cover, and pace bowler Mohsin Khan found the outside edge of Nitish Rana’s bat.
Fast bowler Prince Yadav then picked up the wickets of Sri Lankan Pathum Nissanka, who skied a mistimed pull to diving wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, and clean bowled Patel of the next ball before Rizvi and Stubbs revived the chase. Rizvi was the aggressor of the two, hitting four sixes and five boundaries while Stubbs’ 32-ball knock featured three fours and a six. Earlier, Lucknow struggled from the onset against the pace of Mukesh Kumar (0-17) in the power play while Lungi Ngidi (3-27) and Natarajan (3-29) intelligently varied their pace.
Pant promoted himself as an opener but was run-out in the third over when Kumar couldn’t hold onto a sharp return catch of Mitchell Marsh, but the ball deflected onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end with Pant out of crease. “Best way to recover from my dismissal is to ignore it as you can’t control it,” Pant said. "The way we batted, we couldn’t get a partnership for long ...