The second match of Super Saturday (May 12) witnessed Delhi Daredevils hosting the Royals Challengers Bangalore at Feroz Shah Kotla.
It was a must-win game for RCB to remain in the playoffs contention and they made one change in their playing XI. Sarfaraz Khan is in place of Manan Vohra in the middle-order.
On the other hand, Delhi having been ruled out of the playoffs reckoning, drafted three new faces in their XI. Sandeep Lamichhane, Abhishek Sharma and Junior Dala were the players to make their IPL debut in this match for Delhi.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and invited DD to bat first. In the very first over, Yuzvendra Chahal proved his captain right by removing the inform Prithvi Shaw for just 2. Chahal followed it with Jason Roy’s wicket in the third over as DD find themselves in all sorts of trouble at 16/2.
Rishabh Pant carried on from where he has left against the Sunrisers Hyderabad two days ago. The swashbuckling wicketkeeper batsman rescued Delhi from the deep hole with a glorious 93-run stand with Shreyas Iyer.
Pant was eventually dismissed by Moeen Ali on 61 runs off 34 balls (5 fours and 4 sixes). DD lost the momentum after Pant’s dismissal before Abhishek Sharma played a stunning knock to bring them back on track.
Abhishek (46 runs off 19 balls) along with Vijay Shankar (21 runs off 20 balls) forged an unbeaten 61-run partnership for the fifth wicket as DD eventually ended up with a highly competitive total of 181 in 20 overs.
Chahal was the stand-out bowler for RCB as he scalped 2 for 28 in his 4 overs. Moeen Ali and Mohammed Siraj also claimed wicket apiece.
Twitterati were in awe to see the stupendous batting show of Delhi's young batsmen.
Here are some of the top tweets:
And @IamAbhiSharma4 has arrived ! 46 of 19 this kid is special dd vs RCB
— yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) May 12, 2018
These young kids just look so ready! #AbhishekSharma. Now looking forward to watching young Sandeep Lamichhane. Brilliant to see a player from Nepal in the #IPL!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 12, 2018
Yeh Abhishek toh bilkul Sharma nahin rahe. Bejijhak aur dhuandaar ???? #DDvRCB
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) May 12, 2018
Young Abhishek Sharma, not quite 18, turns spotlight on himself with some fantastic strokeplay. Shows richness of talent in Indian cricket
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 12, 2018
#DD, did you really keep this kid—Abhishek Sharma out for so long??? Looks special.... #DDvRCB #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 12, 2018
Abhi-SHAKE sharma .. What a cameo on debut. भाई, हिला डाला !! #DDvRCB
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) May 12, 2018
Happy to see Indian teens coming of age - U19 Star @iamabhisharma4 finally showed us why he’s spoken about so highly by @harbhajan_singh Has Delhi scored enough to put pressure on Virat and Co #DDvsRCB
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) May 12, 2018
I see two really promising middle order left-handed bastmen in @RishabPant777 and @IamAbhiSharma4 who can make it to the Indian side. The Former is a handy bowler and the latter a good wicket keeper. #DDVRCB #IPL2018
— R P Singh (@rpsingh) May 12, 2018