IPL 2022: Super Giants make Capital gains

Delhi Capitals had nothing in the tank against Lucknow Super Giants’ spinners after Prithvi Shaw’s initial blitz, and Quinton de Kock’s 80 set LSG on course for a six-wicket victory.
Shaw surges
Even when batsmen are said to have thrown the kitchen sink at the ball, it includes only their main equipment and not their bodies. But Shaw was in such a mood on Thursday evening that he actually lunged, swishing his blade furiously, at a K Gowtham delivery in the second over of the DC innings. Fortunately for him, the thick-edged ball flew past slip for four. That was about the only forcing stroke from Shaw that didn’t come off on the night.
Two balls later, he charged down the pitch and swung Jason Holder one bounce into the deep midwicket rope. Not satisfied, he heaved the next from the Caribbean all-rounder all the way over the same region for six.

FIFTY for @PrithviShaw 👏👏
His 11th half-century in #TATAIPL
Live – https://t.co/RH4VDWYbeX #LSGvDC #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/qdKjzch9F9
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2022
Shaw in this mood is often, or probably almost always, a ball away from descending into self-destruct mode, but on Thursday, he held it together for 34 deliveries to make 61. Eleven of those runs came in boundaries, one every third ball he faced.
KL Rahul put in place a short third man, a backward point, a cover-point, and a sweeper. Shaw dismissed Avesh Khan for three consecutive fours through that fortified area. But Avesh kept offering width. Perhaps it was the plan; assuming it was, it certainly didn’t work.
Andrew Tye knocked the wind out of Shaw’s sails briefly with a blow on the box. Shaw went sprawling face down on the grass, got some attention from the physio and punched the very next one over backward point for four more. There was no width this time, but Shaw had created his own space not shuffling across and instead arching back a bit to practically square-loft the ball. The bowler who’d come close to dismissing him early, Gowtham, took out Shaw eventually in the eighth over.
But DC crawl
In the 45 deliveries for which DC’s fresh opening pair of David Warner and Shaw was in the middle, Warner faced a total of 11 balls, in which he scraped four runs. This complete absence of rhythm was to mark the rest of the DC innings. In the over after Shaw fell, Warner reached out to what would have otherwise been a wide googly from Ravi Bishnoi and stabbed it to backward point.

Ravi Bishnoi picks up his second wicket and Rovman Powell is bowled for 3 runs.
Live – https://t.co/RH4VDWYbeX #LSGvDC #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/gyXuauMICp
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2022
Bishnoi could afford to be more aggressive against Rovman Powell, who had no idea what the leg-spinner was up to. A tossed-up googly arrived outside off, Powell tried a futile slog-sweep and was bowled for 3 off 10. A strange fourth-wicket partnership followed between skipper Rishabh Pant and DC debutant Sarfaraz Khan, even as LSG tightened it up with their spinners following Shaw’s exit. Apart from heaving two straight sixes, one of them a mishit, off Tye, Pant didn’t seem to be able to get the ball off the square for the most part. He was on eight off 19 – including a maiden from Gowtham – before he hit his first boundary. He tried the helicopter, he tried all sorts of heaves, he tried backing away and cutting balls headed for off stump. Nothing worked. Pant trudged until the very end and managed 39 off 36.
Sarfaraz began with much more promise, reverse-sweeping Bishnoi against the incoming angle for four off his third ball. He typically nudged it around on the big square outfield for twos. But the big shots were missing from the arsenal. At 36 off 28, he did slightly better than Pant, but that is not saying much. DC’s 149 was the third-lowest total ever in the IPL for the loss of three or fewer wickets a side batting first.
Nortje hurls himself out
A target of 150 amid dew was going to need a miracle or a meltdown to defend, but DC did put in a few quiet overs at the start. On came their retained speedster Anrich Nortje for his first match in five months since the T20 World Cup, and Quinton de Kock burst to life against his compatriot. A slap past extra cover followed two lovely straight drives and topped up a pick-up six produced a 19-run over, and LSG were on their way.
the time Nortje came back in the 14th, de Kock had gone past fifty and the ball was wet. Nortje ripped two beamers in two overs, one each at de Kock and Deepak Hooda. The first one was fended for six over short third man, the second one took Nortje out of the attack. Kuldeep Yadav came on to finish Nortje’s over, and after copping a couple of fours, succeeded in luring de Kock to step out and slice a heave to short third man on 80 off 52.
Different game after QDK
Like with DC in the wake of Shaw, LSG lost steam after de Kock’s departure. Even with a mere 28 needed off 24 balls, the re-minted pairing of Krunal Pandya and Hooda struggled against the changes of pace and full lengths of Shardul Thakur and Mustafizur Rahman for a couple of overs.

But with 17 required off 10, Krunal lofted Rahman over long-on for the release boundary, and Ayush Badoni sealed LSG’s third win in four games with two balls left.