Falling short: Sunrisers Hyderabad's Bhuvneshwar Kumar fails to make his ground.
Disciplined bowling shackles the Sunrisers batsmen
Quinton de Kock’s early assault and the calculated
aggression of Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant later on helped Delhi
Daredevils script an emphatic, seven-wicket win with 11 balls to spare
(its sixth in 10 games) over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier
League at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Thursday night.
Given
the reputation of the Sunrisers bowling attack to defend even modest
totals, it was also a reminder that it was not unplayable if their line,
length and angle are read correctly. Pant’s two effortless sixes off
Mustafizur Rahman bore testimony to this.
Vital partnership
The
win was built on a crucial second-wicket partnership of 55 off 37 balls
between in-form opener de Kock and Karun Nair that put the Delhi
innings back on the rails after it lost Mayank Agarwal to Ashish Nehra
in the fourth over of the innings.
Just when de Kock,
who swung both Nehra and Sran imperiously for two huge sixes, and Karun
were threatening to take the game away, Moises Henriques struck a
double blow in the 10th over.
Karun was yorked while
the dangerous-looking de Kock got a doubtful, delayed caught-behind
decision from umpire Marais Erasmus as Daredevils were reduced to 78 for
three.
Earlier, the Delhi bowling attack, without
the injured Zaheer Khan, put up an impressive performance to restrict
Sunrisers to 146 for eight after inviting the host to bat first.
Leg-spinner
Amit Mishra did well in the middle-overs before the medium-pacers
Nathan Coulter-Nile and Chris Morris came back strongly in the second
half of the innings, bowling with accuracy and, more importantly, to the
field.
After a slow start, the audacious Warner, who
hit two fours and a straight six in off-spinner Jayant Yadav’s third
over, ensured that the home team made optimum use of the PowerPlay,
scoring 51 without losing a wicket.
Shikhar Dhawan was content playing second fiddle, though he reached the boundary a couple of times during that phase.
When
Delhi opted for Jayant to open the bowling against the two
left-handers, it looked a good gamble as he conceded only eight runs in
the first two overs.
Shifting gears
But, once
Warner and Dhawan changed gears after treating Mohammed Shami with
contempt, taking 15 off his first over, the two turned their attention
to Jayant.
But, the offie, brought back in the ninth
over, justified his captain Jean-Paul Duminy’s faith by having the
Sunrisers captain bowled while trying to play a length ball to point.
Warner and Dhawan had put on 67 off 53 balls for the first wicket.
Once Dhawan, looking good for another big score, was dismissed by Mishra in the 13th over, the innings fell apart.
Crucial blow
Yuvraj
Singh, who carted Mishra over long-on for a six, fell in the same over,
mistiming a pull to be caught at short fine-leg in the 15th over.
In
the next over, Shami struck a crucial blow, claiming an lbw verdict
against Henriques (0), to reduce Sunrisers to 114 for four.
SRH 146/8 (20.0 Ovs)
DD 150/3 (18.1 Ovs)
Delhi Daredevils won by 7 wkts
PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Chris Morris
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