Mishra fires Delhi to victory after Iyer heroics
After a career-best 96 from Shreyas Iyer Delhi Daredevils needed successive boundaries from Amit Mishra in the final over to get past Gujarat Lions with two wickets to spare.
Victory sees Delhi climb above their opponents in the Indian Premier League points table, but both knew before the toss their chances of reaching the knockout stages were already gone.
Iyer's impressive knock proved decisive but Delhi needed the experience of Mishra to guide them to a third win in four games, a run they will hope to continue in the final two matches.
Gujarat lost Dwayne Smith (8) and Suresh Raina (6) cheaply early on but Ishan Kishan (34) and Dinesh Karthik (40) ably supported Aaron Finch in setting a competitive total.
Finch has struggled to fire for the Lions but he was in good nick on Wednesday with a superb 69 off just 39 balls, an innings that included six boundaries and four maximums.
A total of 196 looked to be a competitive one and Delhi stuttered early on as Sanju Samson (10) and Rishabh Pant (4) were dismissed cheaply, the latter paying the price for not grounding his bat as he was run out by Raina.
Unfortunately for the Lions a second win on the trot was not forthcoming as Iyer played a starring role in the middle order - the 22-year-old exceeding his previous T20 best by 10 runs.
This young man shined bright like a diamond tonight!#DhoomDhamaka#DDTweets#GLvDD#DilDilliHai pic.twitter.com/MJzvBSzbBi
— Delhi Daredevils (@DelhiDaredevils) May 10, 2017
Despite Iyer's resistance, wickets continued to fall but a quickfire 24 from Pat Cummins brought them to within touching distance of victory.
Cummins holed out to Smith in the deep in the penultimate over and when Iyer was cleaned up by Basil Thampi (1-43) with four balls remaining it looked like Gujarat could snatch the win.
However, Mishra came to Delhi's rescue with a boundary through mid-wicket and another at fine leg - although the winning run came courtesy of a mis-field in the deep.