Sports
Nepal’s Lamichhane dents his chances
Lamichhane’s bowling figure makes all the more concerning considering that fellow left-arm spinner Axar Patel bowled brilliantly, finishing his four overs at 1- 22.Sports Bureau
Nepal’s star leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane dented his chances of featuring regularly for Delhi Capitals during the Indian Premier League this season after returning with the poor bowling figures against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Although his team cantered to a four-wicket victory, Lamichhane was hit for 1-46 in his four overs, by far the worst bowling figures among the six Delhi bowlers. Batting first Bangalore were restricted for 149-8 in 20 overs thanks to a burst of four wickets from South African quick Kagiso Rabada. Delhi lost opener Shikhar Dhawan for a duck but captain Shreyas Iyer struck a superb half century to lay the foundation for his team’s third win in six games, which kept them in hunt for the playoff.
Lamichhane’s bowling figure makes all the more concerning considering that fellow left-arm spinner Axar Patel bowled brilliantly, finishing his four overs at 1- 22. Lamichhane was omitted in the team’s first two games but has since been in the starting lineup in the four games coming to Bangalore. Sunday’s performance have taken a gloss out of his previous three best outings. Against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 30, Lamichhane had the best figures of the team taking 1-29. He then took 2-27 against Kings XI Punjab and 1-32 against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 4.
Skipper Virat Kohli scored 33-ball 41 and Moeen Ali clobbered 18-ball 32 as Bangalore battled to 149-8 after a tight bowling from pace spearhead Chris Morris (2-28) and Ishant Sharma (0-31).
But Rabada dismissed Kohli, AB de Villiers (17), Akshdeep Nath (19) and Pawan Negi (0) to deny Bangalore posting a big total. Delhi lost Dhawan with just one run on the board but skipper Iyer together with Prithvi Shaw (28), Colin Ingram (22), Rishabh Pant (18) made sure they inflict sixth successive defeat on the team led by Indian captain Kohli.
Summary
Delhi Capitals 152-6 in 18.5 overs (S Iyer 67, P Shaw 28; N Saini 2-24, M Ali 1-22) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 149-8 in 20 overs (V Kohli 41, M Ali 32; K Rabada 4-21, C Morris 2-28, S Lamichhane 1-46) by four wickets
Man-of-the-match: K Rabada