West Delhi Lions cruise to DPL 2025 final as East Delhi batsmen falter

Defending champions East Delhi Riders poor run with the bat at the back-end of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) 2025 continued as they were restricted to another below-par total to lose Qualifier 2 and let West Delhi Lions set up a title clash with Central Delhi Kings.

East Delhi Riders had come into the Qualifier 2 on Saturday night following atrocious batting display of 90 and 93 all out, both against Central Delhi Kings, and they showed little improvement against West Delhi Lions.

After losing opener Hardik Sharma early, Arpit Rana and Sujal Singh tried to build a base. They seemed under some pressure, perhaps trying to avoid a repeat of last two games, as the going was slow.

They reached their 50 in only the eighth over just a ball after Sujal fell as the second wicket for a run-a-ball 18.

To be fair to the batsmen, the pitch was spin-friendly and off-spinner Tishant Dabla (2/18), who was brought in as Impact Player in place of the expensive Bhagwan Singh, and left-arm spinner Manan Bhardwaj (3/22) made life difficult for the batsmen. The 100 came only in the 16th over.

Arpit Rana fell for 50 off 38 balls (3x4s, 2x6s) and skipper Anuj Rawat made 15 off 18 balls. Only Rounak Waghela’s 24 off 17 saw them to 139/8 in 20 overs. 

Arpit Rana has aggregated 495 runs in the DPL 2025, the highest by a distance and it is unlikely he will be surpassed.

Despite losing Ankit Rajesh Kumar early, West Delhi Lions batsmen slowly and surely moved towards the very modest target. They reached the 50 in 6.3 overs and needn’t fret over it.

Ayush Doseja (54 not out off 49 balls), who has scored 300 runs in the tournament, and Krish Yadav (37 off 25) added 39 for the second wicket. Doseja then added 86 with skipper Nitish Rana (45 not out off 26 balls) for the third wicket.

Rana had scored a brilliant 134 off 55 balls in the Eliminator on Friday night. He has 314 runs in 10 matches now.

“I think the big players should stand up and be counted in the big matches because they know how to handle pressure and I consider myself in that category. I can absorb pressure and take the game away,” said Nitish Rana.

“The turning point of the game was when I brought in Tishant Dabla as the Impact Player in place of Bhagwan Singh, who was expensive,” added Rana.

As East Delhi Riders, coach KP Bhaskar said that a long break had hurt them.

“We had a long layoff. A couple of games that we were supposed to play got washed out. In a span of 16-17 days, we played only one game. We weren’t also getting any practice facilities because of the rain. So I think we lost that momentum somewhere. We were doing well, winning, had luck on our side in two close games. Of the three top-order batsmen, only Arpit Rana clicked,” said KP Bhaskar.   

West Delhi Lions now play Central Delhi Kings in the DPL 2025 final on Sunday night.

Brief Scores

East Delhi Riders 139/8 in 20 overs (Arpit Rana 50, Manan Bhardwaj 3/22, Tishant Dabla 2/18, Anirudh Chowdhary 2/28) lost to West Delhi Lions 141/2 in 17.3 overs (Ayush Doseja 54 not out, Nitish Rana 45 not out, Krish Yadav 37)

Tags : Nitish Rana, Ayush Doseja, West Delhi Lions, Anuj Rawat, Central Delhi Kings, DPL 2025, Delhi Premier League