Liam Plunkett, Avesh restrict Gayle-less Punjab to 143

New Delhi: An impressive bowling figure of 3 wickets for 17 runs by Delhi Daredevils' debutant Liam Plunkett hindered a Chris Gayle-less Kings XI Punjab from scoring big as the travelling team managed a paltry 143 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here on Monday.

Bottom-placed Daredevils were desperate to get back into the groove as skipper Gautam Gambhir made five changes in the starting XI. Dan Christian, Avesh Khan, Liam Plunkett, Amit Mishra, and Prithvi Shaw walked into the lineup for Jason Roy, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Harshal Patel and Vijay Shankar.

Kings XI, on the other hand, badly missed their injured Jamaican power hitter as Gayle's replacement Aaron Finch failed to shine.

Put in to bat, the visitors received the early blow when Avesh dismissed opener Aaron Finch (2) in the second over.

The Australian batsman, who was promoted to the top of the order to his familiar opening spot, was bamboozled by the sheer pace of Avesh Khan. His 148+ kmph delivery was mistimed into the safe hands of Shreyas Iyer.

Incoming batter Mayank Agarwal and opener Lokesh Rahul (23) then showed some resistance, putting a 36-run partnership for the second wicket to take Punjab to 42 runs. However, Plunkett struck in the fifth over to put an end to Rahul's innings.

Agarwal (21) was the next to depart as in-form Plunkett struck again in the eighth over, which left Punjab reeling at 60/3. After adding 15 more runs tot he total, Avesh sent back veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh (14) to make things worse for the visitors.

Yuvraj's fall brought Karun Nair in the middle, who showed a little fight against the hosts and slammed 34 runs to take his team past the 100-run mark before falling in the 17th over to Plunkett.

Delhi's Daniel Christian also joined the party and dismissed David Miller (26) with Punjab's scorecard reading 127/6. Meagre contributions by Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (6 runs off 7 balls), Andrew Tye (3) and with the help of 14 extra runs, Punjab managed to put 143.

Brief Scores: Kings XI 143/8 (Karun Nair 34, Lokesh Rahul 23; Liam Plunkett 3/17) vs Delhi Daredevils.