Among the old-timers who are performing brilliantly in the ongoing IPL 2023 season, one of them is veteran India pacer Ishant Sharma.
Picked up at the base price of INR 50 lakh by the Delhi Capitals, Ishant Sharma has snapped up 8 wickets in 7 innings at a good average of 19 and strike rate of 15. The lanky pacer has maintained a tidy economy of 7.52 so far in the season.
His latest scalp was a big one – that of Punjab Kings‘ power-hitter Liam Livingstone, whom Sharma gave a flying kiss as a sendoff after castling the Englishman and uprooting the off-stump with a sensational delivery.
DC and PBKS met in a crucial encounter to keep their campaigns alive on Saturday evening at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi. This was a double strike from Ishant Sharma after having already dismissed the Punjab Kings skipper, Shikhar Dhawan, and gave DC an early upper-hand.
Livingstone had already decided that he will skip down the pitch looking to swing Sharma out of the stadium. The seamer bowled a length delivery on the off-stump and the ball straightened after pitching. But Livingstone was already through his shot and missed it completely. The ball crashed into the sticks and the off-stump was left flat on the ground.
Watch: Ishant Sharma gave a flying kiss to Livingstone after dismissing him
CASTLED! 💥
Ishant Sharma gives a send-off to Livingstone 👋#Ishantsharma #DCvPBKS #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/mTZz5cddSC
— OneCricket (@OneCricketApp) May 13, 2023
Meanwhile, earlier, David Warner had won the toss and elected to field first against PBKS in Delhi. At the time of writing, Prabhsimran Singh is inching toward his maiden IPL century.
Teams:
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Mitchell Marsh, Rilee Rossouw, Aman Hakim Khan, Axar Patel, Praveen Dubey, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Shikhar Dhawan: We would have bowled too but we are batting first, so looking forward to it. I guess, we’re adapting to the conditions nicely, we’re playing some good cricket and we’re not finishing well sometimes. It is beautiful that they are putting up good performances. They are young and maturing and those are great signs. We have got one change – Raza comes back in and Rajapaksa misses out.
David Warner: We will have a bowl. It is going to be a slow, low surface, it is not going to change much. There might be some dew later on. The last game was not a good one but winning 4 out of 5 was quite good. The boys have come out with a lot of freedom and a clear mind. The crowd has come out and supported us. We have got the same 16, Ripal goes out and another pacer comes in.
