THE HIMALAYAN MAIL JAMMU Q MONDAY Q OCTOBER 05, 2020 11 Battle of equals: Virat Kohli's RCB up Turning Point: Iyer, Pant's against Shreyas Iyer's Delhi Capitals 72 run partnership DUBAI, OCTOBER 4: On Saturday, October 3, at the A back-in-form Virat Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Shreyas Kohli's tactical acumen will Iyer and Rishabh Pant provided be put to test against enough evidence to suggest they will Shreyas Iyer's unassuming be the future stars of Indian cricket -- but dynamic brand of cap- at least in the limited overs form -- as taincy when the two most Delhi Capitals beat Kolkata Knight impressive teams of the on- Riders in the Indian Premier League. going IPL -- Royal Chal- Their 72 run association for the lengers Bangalore and Delhi third wicket was the difference be- Capitals -- face each other tween th two sides. It took the game here on Monday. away from KKR. With a view to chas- Both DC and RCB have ing down any total at Sharjah, the Di- looked solid so far and are nesh Karthik-led KKR asked Iyer's placed atop the standings Delhi Capitals to bat first. with three wins out of four Making merry of the small dimen- games each. for Iyer. at the top. The left-hander, fore the start of the tourna- sions of the ground, the DC unit piled While Iyer has shown up a mammoth 228 for 4, riding on great form in his team's four But on the brighter side, considered the next big ment. Delhi seem to have finally thing in Indian cricket, is Squads: half-centuries from opener Prithvi matches, Kohli finally got Shaw (66) and Iyer (88* off 38 balls). his act together in RCB's last got Rishabh Pant back in fourth in the run-scorers' RCB: Virat Kohli (c), AB form as he dusted off his tally with 174 from four de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Wicket-keeper batsman Pant con- twos and getting the big shots every starting with a boundary. He stood game against Rajasthan tributed with a fine 17-ball 38 at a over.Iyer reached his fifty off 26 balls tall to hit it over extra cover for a flat Royals, striking a fluent rustiness with a quick-fire games, including three Aaron Finch, Josh Philippe, 17-ball 38 against KKR. fifties. Chris Morris, Moeen Ali, strike-rate of 223.53, with six bound- before he further added 37 from just six and ended the over with another half-century. aries in his kitty. 12 deliveries. huge six. On Saturday, Iyer (88 not To add to it, there is Mar- And if Aaron Finch too Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz cus Stonis and Shimron gets going, it would be diffi- Ahmed, Devdutt Padikkal, After DC lost Shikhar Dhawan and In the 16th, 17th and 18th overs the From 129/2 in 12.4 overs, Delhi out off 38 balls) again Shaw, Iyer and Pant joined forces. DC batsmen took 18 runs off Shivam posted 228. showed his class after Hetmyer waiting in the cult for any side to stop the Yuzvendra Chahal, wings. marauding Bangalore Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, The duo strung an invaluable 72 run Mani, 17 off Pat Cummins and then KKR had a poor start as they lost Prithvi Shaw's (66) opening partnership off 31 balls and put DC in 15 off Andre Russell. Sunil Narine (3) early. Eoin Morgan act as Delhi beat Kolkata On the bowling front, openers. Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Kagiso Rabada is the go-to Kohli's return to form is a Shivam Dube, Umesh Ya- the driver's seat. Pant departed at the end of Rus- and Rahul Tripathi's blistering late Knight Riders by 18 runs. Iyer and Pant mixed caution with sell's over, after which Iyer exploded. effort went in vain as Delhi Capitals Kohli too finally got his man for DC even though he relief for RCB's batting unit, dav, Gurkeerat Singh leaked runs against KKR which also has the likes of Mann, Washington Sundar, aggression. They accelerated the in- He hammered mystery spinner won by 18 runs. touch back after three ordi- nings, converting the singles into Varun C for 20 runs in the 19th over, In the end, those 19 runs off the nary outings with an un- the other day. the in-form AB de Villiers, Pavan Deshpande, Adam beaten 72 off 53 balls to South African pacer An- Shivam Dube and Gur- Zampa. guide RCB to a comfortable rich Nortje has been bril- keerat Singh among others. Delhi Capitals: Shreyas eight-wicket win over Ra- liant for DC in the opening Isuru Udana has been a Iyer (c), Ravichandran Ash- jasthan Royals. and slog overs and bowled a welcome addition in RCB's win, Shikhar Dhawan, Meet the first American And come Monday, the brilliant penultimate over bowling line-up along side Prithvi Shaw, Shimron Het- two skippers would look to against KKR on Saturday. Navdeep Saini and the spin myer, Kagiso Rabada, lead from the front and out- Harshal Patel, as Ishant duo of Washington Sundar Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Sharma's replacement, did and Yuzvendra Chahal. Mishra, Rishabh Pant (wk), footballer to sign for Barcelona wit each other in what promises to be a thrilling well enough to finish with 2 But Australian leg-spin- Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, New Barcelona signing contest. for 34 in 4 overs but the fit- ner Adam Zampa is yet to Sandeep Lamichhane, Sergino Dest said he "fol- While Shaw has so far again Ravichandran Ash- adjust to the conditions. Keemo Paul, Daniel Sams, lowed his heart" by turning looked quite in control at win and Stoinis went for RCB would also be hop- Mohit Sharma, Anrich down a move to European the top of the order for DC, runs. ing for Chris Morris to re- Nortje, Alex Carey (wk), Champions Bayern Munich Shikhar Dhawan's form RCB, on the other hand, cover quickly after the Avesh Khan, Tushar Desh- in favour of the Catalan side. would be a cause of concern have been served well by South African all-rounder pande, Harshal Patel, Mar- Dest became the first the young Devdutt Padikkal picked up a side strain be- cus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav. United States international to join Barca on Thursday, signing from Ajax Amster- dam on a long-term con- EPL PIX: Leeds hold City; tract at the Camp Nou. "I'm proud to be the first- ever American here. It's a dream come true and I Everton and Chelsea cruise can't wait to get started Leeds United's Rodrigo had renewed their interest in with my new team mates," Moreno struck his first goal Chelsea winger Callum Hud- he told a news conference. for the club to earn a 1-1 draw son-Odoi and wanted to sign Dest came through the at home to Manchester City him before the transfer dead- youth ranks at Ajax, mak- in the Premier League on line on Monday. ing 23 league appearances, Saturday as visiting Pep "There is no definitive an- and attracted interest from Guardiola was denied victory swer but by Monday, we will a number of clubs across against one of the men who have one," he said. "At the Europe. He admitted he inspired him to be a coach. minute, I want Callum part turned down a move to City's Spanish boss has of- of my squad." Bayern. ten spoken highly of Leeds' James Rodriguez netted "Bayern are a great club Argentine coach Marcelo twice and Dominic Calvert- and there was interest from Bielsa, who Guardiola took Lewin became the first Ever- them, but I followed what my heart told me to and for advice from before going into in the Premier League on Lampard made six ton player to score in the management at Barcelona, opening four matches of a that I signed for Barca. I Saturday as Ben Chilwell changes to the team that sal- think it was the right deci- with the two tacticians meet- marked his league debut for vaged a 3-3 draw after being Premier League season as ing for the first time in Eng- they beat Brighton & Hove sion. the Blues by scoring the 3-0 behind at West "They are a club with so land. opening goal and creating Bromwich Albion last week- Albion 4-2 on Saturday to City were dominant early stay top of the table with a much history and I've al- another for Kurt Zouma. end, four of them at the back ways wanted to play here." on as they looked to quickly Jorginho sealed the win as he gave league debuts to maximum 12 points. His arrival means he will the 19-year-old to represent "(Playing under) Koeman cate with him," he said. forget their shock 5-2 home with two late penalties in a left back Chilwell and goal- The hosts produced an- play under coach Ronald the Netherlands at interna- of course was an influence, Dest could make his de- defeat by Leicester City last second-half demolition of keeper Edouard Mendy. other classy performance Koeman, who unsuccess- tional level while in his pre- because he's Dutch and it but in Sunday's La Liga time out, with Kevin De Palace who had stifled Chilwell, who moved from with Rodriguez's fellow fully attempted to convince vious job. will be easier to communi- clash at home to Sevilla. Bruyne almost opening the Chelsea in a goalless first Leicester City in August, Colombian Yerry Mina also scoring with a clever free kick half.