Gujarat Lion’s impressive campaign was jolted by Kings XI Punjab, when the bottom of the table team, gave them their second defeat of the season. The Lions were looking to get back to their winning ways, while Daredevils were looking to avenge their one run loss from their previous encounter. It was an interesting match on cards when Zaheer Khan won the toss and chose to bowl first.

An injured Dwayne Bravo was replaced by Aaron Finch for the game. The destructive pair of Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum came a cropper against the DD bowlers when captain drew the first blood. He deceived McCullum of a slower delivery who went for a slog only to see his woodwork being disturbed. Shadab Nadeem who came in this match, repaid the faith shown by the team management, when he picked up the important wickets of Smith and Finch to leave GL reeling at 24-3. Dinesh Karthik 53(43) played a fighting innings in the company of Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. But, DD did well to make regular inroads and did not let the hosts take control of the proceedings as they restricted them to a total of 149/7.

It was a new opening pair for Delhi in the form of Quinton De Kock and Rishabh Pant. The duo clicked well when they raced to 50 in no time. It was not a usual scenario as De Kock took a back seat and let the young man take charge. Pant displayed a lot of character and class throughout the innings and took the onus upon himself to lead the chase for DD. Gujarat had an opportunity in the form of a stumping, when Dinesh Karthik missed a simple chance to send De Kock back. Pant scored 69 from just 40 balls as he got out after getting his maiden IPL fifty in a rather unfortunate way. He tried to sweep Jadeja only to see the ball hit his pads and balloon in the air giving Karthik a simple catch. GL managed to get a couple of wickets but DD cruised to victory with almost three overs to spare.