Kings stay kings, Daredevils remain paupers at home

NEW DELHI: On a day when Kings XI Punjab were tested to the hilt by luckless Delhi Daredevils in a tense affair, one had to be at the ground to see the kind of adulation Punjab's Glenn Maxwell has started receiving from Indian crowds.
When this season's biggest batting sensation walked out at Delhi's home turf in the seventh over with Punjab comfortably placed at 67/1 chasing 165, the deafening roars of "Maxwell, Maxwell" were a reminder of the kind of reception reserved in the past for some of India's greatest batsmen at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
The cheers refused to die down and Imran Tahir even stopped momentarily in his delivery stride till things quietened down a bit. Maxwell was greeted with a wide but an LBW appeal led to gasps of astonishment, almost as if the batsman had no business getting out early.
Maxwell obliged by hitting the fourth ball he received for a six but didn't last long, falling to a Tahir googly for an 11-ball 14, and immediately shouts of "Arrey ticket kharab ho gayi (our ticket is wasted)" echoed from the old clubhouse.
That was a strange sentiment from the Delhi home crowd given that moments earlier, Tahir's dismissal of a hungry-to-impress Manan Vohra (42; 19b, 4x4, 3x6) seemed to momentarily stop Punjab in their tracks after an electrifying start.
JP Duminy's innocuous slow bowling accounted for both Sehwag and the dangerous David Miller in between Maxwell's brief stay, and bottom-placed Delhi suddenly seemed in with a whiff of a chance after six consecutive losses. Or perhaps the crowd knew better.
Too much trouble had already been done by the opening pair and it was a very brief window of opportunity which the Delhi bowling couldn't capitalize on as a seventh straight defeat followed.
It was a close thing, though, and table-toppers Punjab played some sensible cricket to overhaul Delhi's total by the skin of their teeth in 19.4 overs, Akshar Patel following up his excellent showing with the ball (Pietersen's wicket and 18 runs off his quota) with a measured 42 not out off 35 balls.
Even George Bailey's untimely dismissal couldn't alter Delhi's rock-bottom fortunes. It turned out to be the perfect dead rubber to test Punjab's lower middle-order in an extraordinary season for the team, while for Delhi it seems there are no new depths to plumb.
For a while on Monday, though, it seemed Daredevils would set up a formidable total with skipper Kevin Pietersen (49; 32b, 6x4, 1x6) and a recharged Dinesh Karthik (69; 44b, 7x4, 3x6) playing rollicking knocks.