Stats: Debutants Abhishek, Sandeep Shine Bright Despite DD’s Loss

India’s Abhishek Sharma, South Africa’s Junior Dala and Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane made their IPL debut on Saturday

Delhi Daredevils’ Sandeep Lamichhane (left) and Abhishek Sharma in action against RoyaL Challengers Bangalore on Saturday.

(Photo: The Quint)

Half-centuries by AB de Villiers and captain Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore past Delhi Daredevils by five wickets and in the run for the Indian Premier League playoffs on Saturday.

De Villiers (72 not out) and Kohli (70 off 40 balls) finally showed their class in a 118-run, third-wicket match-winning stand as Bangalore reached 187-5 with an over to spare.

Delhi, out of contention for the playoffs, scored 181-4 after Kohli won the toss and opted to field.

Bangalore moved to seventh in the standings after its fourth win, and needs to win its remaining three games to stay in the hunt for the top four.

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Earlier in the day, three Delhi Daredevils players made their IPL debut. India’s Abhishek Sharma, South African pacer Junior Dala and Nepalese leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, who became the first player from his country to play in the IPL.

Both Abhishek and Sandeep had a dream debut with Abhishek scoring a quickfire unbeaten 46 of 19 balls to propel Delhi to 181/4 and Lamichhane too stood out with his performance as he took Parthiv Patel's wicket and conceded 25 runs in four overs. Dala, on the other hand, was disappointing leaking 34 runs in three overs.

After skipper Shreyas Iyer and in-form Rishabh Pant departed, Delhi were stranded at at 120 for four in 15.1 overs.

That was when Sharma stepped in and took the opposition by surprise. The left-hander looked good from ball one when he smashed Siraj to the long-off boundary. After being dropped by Mohammed Siraj off Tim Southee, Abhishek smashed him for two sixes in a row. The 17-year-old displayed clean and powerful hitting in an innings that comprised four sixes and three boundaries.

In the 2018 IPL auctions, Abhishek was picked up by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 55 lakh. Prior to that, Abhishek was an important member of the side that lifted the 2018 ICC U-19 World Cup later in New Zealand.

He featured in all of India's games at the World Cup, scoring an important fifty versus Bangladesh in the quarter-final and constituting one-third of India's left-arm spin triumvirate at the competition.

On return from World Cup, Sharma featured in the 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy for his state Punjab. And before the WC, he debuted in the Ranji Trophy for Punjab carving out gutsy performances for his state side.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Lamichhane become the second youngest overseas player to make his debut in the IPL. At 17 years 283 days, he is second only to Kings XI Punjab’s Afghani spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman, who made his debut at 17 years 11 days.

Sandeep, who was picked up by the Daredevils for a Rs 20 lakh, was given the opportunity to open the bowling for his side and he didn’t dissappoint.

At an economy of 6.25 runs per over, Sandeep gave away only 25 runs in his allotted four overs, taking the prized wicket of opener Parthiv Patel in his second over of the IPL.

The 17-year old was also a key member of the Nepal side which played at 2019 World Cup qualifiers. Sandeep, under the tutelage of Micheal Clarke, played grade cricket in Australia in late 2016 for Western Suburbs of Sydney.

(With inputs from AP)

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