Punjab fails to grab IPL top-two spot after losing to Delhi by 6 wickets

JAIPUR, India (AP) — Punjab Kings failed to clinch a top-two spot in the Indian Premier League after being thrashed by Delhi Capitals by six wickets on Saturday.

Playoffs-bound Punjab made a strong 206-8 but Sameer Rizvi with a blistering unbeaten 58 off 25 balls — his maiden IPL half-century — led Delhi’s winning chase to 208-4.

The game was replayed after it was called off in Dharamsala on May 8 when the floodlights went off during air raid alerts in the second innings. The IPL was later suspended due to the military strikes between India and Pakistan.

Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the others to have filled out the playoff spots but their final positions are still to be determined. The top two have home advantage.

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Rizvi unleashes

Rizvi and Karun Nair, who made 44, revived Delhi’s chase after it lost seasoned pros Lokesh Rahul (35) and captain Faf du Plessis (23) inside the first seven overs.

Nair, who was recalled to the India test team after eight years on Saturday, took his time to settle before he smashed leg-spinner Praveen Dubey for four straight boundaries in the 11th over.

Nair added 62 runs with Rizvi until Nair’s leg stump was knocked back by spinner Harpreet Brar just before the death overs. Delhi still needed 52 off the final five overs.

Rizvi continued to attack and got lucky when he edged an Azmatullah Omarzai yorker but it flew to the fine leg boundary.

Rizvi swept Marcus Stoinis for a huge six on the leg side to raise the victory with three balls to spare.

Iyer and Stoinis shine for Punjab

Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer made 53 and held the innings together in the middle overs before Stoinis’ late flourish of an unbeaten 44 off 16 balls which included four sixes.

Delhi left-arm fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman bagged 3-33, but pacers Mukesh Kumar (1-49) and Mohit Sharma (0-47) conceded 25 and 22 runs respectively in their last overs to give Punjab a late surge.

Mustafizur dismissed Priyansh Arya in the second over but Josh Inglis kickstarted Punjab by smashing 32 off 12 balls. Inglis was stumped by Vipraj Nigam’s wide ball down the leg side.

Iyer scored freely despite wickets falling around the Punjab captain. Iyer reached his half-century off 33 balls and was caught at fine leg off Kuldeep Yadav in a three-run 18th over.

However, Stoinis smacked 32 runs off the final two overs, hitting Sharma for 6-4-4-6. Brar smacked six off the first ball he faced and took Punjab past 200 for the seventh time this season.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket