SK Flashback: When Delhi Daredevils Morris-ed their way to a nail-biting finish against Gujarat Lions
The 2016 edition of IPL welcomed Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants on board. In the unfortunate turn of events, the beloved teams of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals made way for the temporary teams from Rajkot and Pune.
While Gujarat, led by CSK's chinna thala, Suresh Raina, had begun roaring loud enough, Pune's team led by thala MS Dhoni hadn't risen to the occasion.
The batting line-up of the Lions was a congregation to devastate opposition bowling attacks. They had demonstrated it time and again, reaching the second spot of the table.
The backdrop of the match
Early in the tournament, only Mumbai Indians had completed half their playing quota. Both GL and DD were comfortably seated atop the table, after KKR, with 4 wins each in their kitty.
The Daredevils had clinched early wins in the tournament to find a spot up the table, unlike their hapless plight throughout the IPL. In fact, this feat took four years to repeat itself. Probably Rahul Dravid's young lot was doing the trick for this team that was wholly dependant on auction to strengthen itself than the others like RCB or SRH who retained their stars.
With no play-offs round the corner or losses to cover for, the teams were in to fight a game of equals. It was a battle between Lions' batting explosions vs Daredevils' bowling guns.
Openers' delight
This match could be one of the reasons why RCB picked McCullum and the IPL 2018 will miss Dwayne Smith. Eyeing to chase as much as possible, Zaheer Khan, DD's captain chose to field at the toss. Little did he know that he was putting his team through a blistering ride of Smith-McCullum boundaries.
An array of records were broken that day - some created months or days ago and some created that very day. Getting off to a tremendous start, scoring 18 runs in the first over, the openers reached the 50-run mark within the 4th over.
The duo bashed Shahbaz Nadeem and Zaheer Khan alike to mark the 2nd most expensive power play of 72 runs, seconding their own record against RCB (73 runs) in their recent match.
Zaheer finally introduced the spin duo, Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir. Well, it didn't make a difference. The openers continued their party. McCullum registered a 27-ball 50, making it the fastest half-century in the Gujarat Lions team.
In the next over, the team became the fastest to reach the 100-run mark that season, followed by Smith racing past McCullum to score a 26-ball 50.
After 10 long overs, Tahir finally trapped Smith into a skidder and broke the 112-run partnership between the both. Phew, a breather! A CSK look-alike batting was seen with the GL. Further damage to the DD team was expected. However, Morris had different plans.
A full toss at the middle stump and mistimed sweep in the air led the ball directly to the mid-stump and McCullum was sent back. Raina was there until the end of that over and the short ball got him again.
The score read 117/3 in 12 overs. The South African sprinter/leggie, Imran Tahir, sent back Ishan Kishan and Dinesh Karthik in consecutive balls, in the 17th over. The run-rate began dipping.
None of the batsmen made it big in the death overs. After a silent climax, the Lions stood at 172/6 in the end. The first 10 overs were all about GL's batting was and next 10, about DD's bowling.
Christopher Henry Morris' attack
Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni partnered the power play and didn't allow Daredevils any more than a run rate of 3.66 after taking 3 wickets. The chase couldn't have started on a worse note. There were record-breaking GL on one side, and here were DD getting nowhere after playing 6 overs.
Local lad Rishabh Pant and JP Duminy added 41 runs to the board, sharing only 3 boundaries between the both. Once Pant succumbed to a brilliant catch by Praveen Kumar in deep square leg, another Protea joined Duminy on the pitch, who almost risked Lions' easy win.
At the start of the 12th over, with a 101 runs more to go, Chris Morris began filliping boundaries. It was one of those days when the team had to accelerate after a poor start, and the middle order batsmen actually got to smashing balls around the park.
Faulkner, Bravo, Tambe, Kulkarni, were all brought into the attack, but never made a difference. No breakthroughs, whatsoever. Morris slammed all the fastest-fifty records that day as he walloped a 17-ball 50, fastest for the season.
With 29 required off the last three overs, Morris-Duminy had left no stone unturned. However, a slow off-cutter from Bravo altered Duminy's bat face and the ball went straight up in the air.
Bravo called for the ball, ran backwards and placed himself right below the ball, and caught it. The end of the crucial partnership worth 87 between the batsmen, making way for Pawan Negi.
Morris hit a couple of boundaries before Praveen Kumar took things back to control - he gave away just 4 runs in the penultimate over and the RRR for the Delhi team catapulted from 9 to 14.
The final over and Morris belted the first one to the ropes. Both the batsmen, with their adrenaline pumped, sneaked some quick singles and grabbed a couple of runs, when there wasn't even a scope for it, in the next four balls.
4 runs were required off the last ball.
Bravo pranced in, Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps with his baseball helmet, and bulleted a full and straight ball at Morris. He swung his bat across and the ball reached Jadeja at long-on. The duo ran a couple. Match lost by one run. (Would it have helped if Karthik was back in the Daredevils' jersey playing the last ball for them?)
The Gujarat Lions had jumped a spot above, to lead the table while Delhi rested in the same place with another loss to their name. Chris Morris was named the Man of the Match, a thoroughly deserved award after scoring 82 (32) and having bowling figures of 4-0-35-2.