Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman was definitely called up for only three matches in this year’s IPL. If luck had helped, the number of matches could have increased. However, this cutter master did not have a bad time personally. In his last match in the current season, Mustafiz set a record for taking the highest wickets among Bangladeshis in the IPL. His team Delhi Capitals also ended the season with a win.
Both Delhi and Punjab Kings played their last match of the league season at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur yesterday (Saturday). Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab have more to fight for in the season as they have made it to the IPL playoffs. Batting first, Punjab scored 206 runs for 8 wickets. Delhi reached the mark with 3 balls and 6 wickets in hand.
Mustafizur started Delhi’s success in the first innings of the match. He caught Punjab opener Priyansh Arya in his first and second overs of the match. The last wicket of the innings also went to Fiz. Earlier, Shashank Singh caught Tristan Stubbs with his ball in the 16th over. Through this, Fiz surpassed Shakib, who has the record of the highest wickets as a Bangladeshi in the IPL so far. In the last over, he removed Marco Jansen and increased his tally further. Mustafizur has taken 65 wickets in 60 innings in the IPL.
Delhi also took the match on the Bangladeshi star’s record day. Where captain Iyer scored the highest 53 runs for Punjab, who batted first against them. In his 34-ball innings, he hit 5 fours and 2 sixes. In the end, Marcus Stoinis played a cameo innings of 44 runs in 16 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes. Apart from this, Punjab got a big capital thanks to Josh Inglis’ 32 runs off 12 balls and Prabhsimran Singh’s 28 runs. For Delhi, Kuldeep Yadav and Bheepraj Nigam took 2 wickets each in addition to Fiz’s 3 wickets.
Delhi was on the right track from the start in chasing the target. However, despite a good start, they lost opener Lokesh Rahul for 51 runs. The Indian star scored 35 runs off 21 balls with 6 fours and a six. Captain Faf du Plessis (23 off 15 balls) was dismissed quickly. Then, even though the debutant Afghan youngster Sediqullah Atal returned for 22 runs, Karun Nair and Sameer Rizvi did not let Delhi worry anymore. Nair, who returned to the national team after 7 years, scored 44 runs off 27 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes.
However, the main hero of Delhi reaching its destination was Rizvi. The young batsman played some spectacular shots on the day of his fifty. He secured the victory with an unbeaten 58 runs off 25 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes. Apart from that, Stubbs, who accompanied him, was unbeaten on 18 runs. Delhi secured the victory in the last match of the season in 19.3 overs. Harpreet Brar took the highest 2 wickets for Punjab.
