IPL 2017: Pant, Samson blitzkrieg crush Gujarat Lions' play-off hopes

“What a player,” Tony Greig would have exclaimed if he witnessed Thursday night’s carnage by two supremely talented young Indian batsmen in Delhi Daredevils’ do-or-die Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Gujarat Lions on a blustery evening at the capital’s Ferozshah Kotla.

Kotla witnessed a run fest on Thursday as Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson clobbered the Gujarat Lions attack and set the platform for Delhi Daredevils’ highest even run chase. Before this, only once had a team chased more than 209 runs to win an IPL match. When Delhi stepped out to chase a mammoth total of 209 at an asking rate of 10.5 an over, few would have imagined it would reduce the required rate to less than a run a ball by the 15th over, and finish off the game with 15 balls to spare.

However, this was made possible by the heroics of Pant (97 off 43) and Samson (61 off 31).

So attractive were their knocks that it appeared to spectators they were watching a highlights package, and not live broadcast. The way Pant and Samson were competing with each other, one could easily mistake their innings for a Super Sixes competition. While Samson, who refused to hit fours and negotiated only in sixes ended with seven maximums in his 31-ball 61, local lad Pant blasted nine sixes and six fours en route to his 97 off 43 balls. Their 143-run partnership set up DD’s chase of 209, which was quite comfortably accomplished. Read More