As Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul elected to field first after winning the toss on a Dubai pitch that had a tinge of grass on it, all eyes were immediately on the pace duo of Sheldon Cottrell and Mohammed Shami. Delhi Capitals have a strong batting line-up and these two men needed to be on the money to ensure their opponents were not off to a big start.
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While Cottrell started well by giving just 5 runs in the opening over, Mohammed Shami looked like a man on a mission as he bowled with pace and verve. Shami’s first over produced just two runs including the run out of opener Shikhar Dhawan.
Such was the discipline with which Shami bowled that it forced the otherwise composed Prithvi Shaw to play a false shot in the next over as Shami picked up his first wicket of the match. West Indian Shimron Hetmyer dispatched Shami for a boundary on the next delivery, but the Indian paceman bowled an outstanding delivery into the body of the hard hitter, which took a leading edge of the bat and was caught at covers.
{{/usCountry}}Such was the discipline with which Shami bowled that it forced the otherwise composed Prithvi Shaw to play a false shot in the next over as Shami picked up his first wicket of the match. West Indian Shimron Hetmyer dispatched Shami for a boundary on the next delivery, but the Indian paceman bowled an outstanding delivery into the body of the hard hitter, which took a leading edge of the bat and was caught at covers.
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Shami’s twin strikes stunned the Delhi dressing room. DC skipper Shreyas Iyer repaired the innings along with Rishabh Pant and just when it looked that he would shift his gears and push for the big hits, Shami came back to dismiss him to peg Delhi further back.
He ended the innings with figures of 3/15, which are his best ever in IPL. Yes, Mohammed Shami produced his best ever IPL spell against his old team, beating his previous best of 3/21, which he had picked up for KXIP against Mumbai Indians last season