Preity Zinta, Co-owner KXIP, with drum artists in Mohali.
Englishman Sam Curran pulled off the ultimate heist for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) with four death overs wickets including a hat-trick to trigger the downfall of Delhi Capitals (DC), with the latter losing 7 wickets for 8 runs to go down by 14 runs in their encounter yesterday. While Delhi were cruising at 144/3 in the 17th over chasing a target of 167, Mohammed Shami took two wickets in two balls to start the collapse. Curran then sent back Colin Ingram (38) and Harshal Patel (0) in the 18th over before rooting out the stumps of Kagiso Rabada and Sandeep Lamichhane - both for ducks to complete the hat-trick.
After the win, KXIP players celebrated in style with the franchise owner and actress Preity Zinta. During the customary handshakes, the England all-rounder was seen getting into a Bhangra jig with his cheerful owner.
Only the third KXIP bowler to pick a hat-trick in the history of the league, Curran revealed that he took a cue from teammates when it came to bowling to the domestic players.
"I didn't really know (about the hat-trick). The crowd got really loud, I couldn't hear myself. Ash told me what to do. Ryan Harris was standing at the third man region. Against the local batters, I had to ask our players, "Where does he hit?". Shami got two amazing overs in the end which helped," he smiled.
While he was the star of the show, Curran said it was a complete team effort that saw KXIP pull off the win. "Great win for the guys. I tried to put a performance for my team. Luckily enough, we scraped to 166, all the six bowlers were excellent. I have worked a lot on my batting over the last few months. I like to work hard on my batting, bowling and fielding," he said.
Made to open the batting as Chris Gayle was out with an injury, the 20-year-old said this was his first at the professional level. "I have opened in school cricket, but think this was the first time in professional cricket. Hopefully, we keep winning games," he said.
(With IANS inputs)
