Sunrisers Hyderabad are on a roll now, winning three matches in a row. With this 47-run win over Axar Patel’s team, they move up to 3rd place, going past Rajasthan Royals. Delhi Capitals fought hard, but SRH were better tonight. We all knew that the climb was stiff. They set up a strong base camp and battled through the ascent too. However, eventually the summit stayed out of reach. It is the mistakes made in the first half that will come under scrutiny. They dropped catches, missed a crucial runout and made bowling changes that left the fans and experts bewildered. Kuldeep and Axar bowled only 2 overs apiece, while Nitish Rana, who eventually conceded 0/55 was given 4 overs.
The possible explanation to that lies in Abhishek Sharma’s elongated presence at the crease. He made the most of the lives he got and went on to score an unbeaten 135* (68). Obviously, his scintillating knock was laced with some flamboyant, powerful strikes, just the kind you expect from the left-hander. While Travis Head started slow, he finished with a decent strike rate of 142 against his name. Ishan Kishan scored a 13-ball-25 before getting run out at the non-striker’s end due to Abhishek bludgeoning the ball straight.
Sunrisers Hyderabad dominate as Delhi Capitals fall short despite fightback
But that only allowed Heinrich Klaasen a timely entry and he provided an explosive finish with his 13-ball-37*. Delhi failed to make an impact with the new ball, something which is becoming a pattern now. And thus, the mountain was forged. Playing his first IPL game this year, Dilshan Madhushanka put on an exhibition of T20 new-ball bowling. He showed swing, change of pace and mostly bowled in the right areas. He was rewarded with the wicket of Pathum Nissanka.
Nitish Rana somewhat made up for his rough outing with the ball as he manufactures a pugnacious half-century and stitched a good 86-run partnership with KL Rahul for the 2nd wicket. After 10 overs, DC were 98/1, exactly the score that SRH had too in the first half of their batting innings. But then, Rahul hit a full toss straight to the fielder and Rana was dismissed a few balls later. David Miller got beaten by Malinga’s pace and the visitors went from 107/2 to 107/4.
Sameer Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs did play sprightly knocks to keep the flame of hope burning, but they were always fighting a lost battle. Eventually, both were dismissed and DC fell well short of the target. Eshan Malinga finished with 4/32, the best figures among the SRH bowlers tonight, while Harsh Dubey, who was given a couple of consolation overs at the fag end, got 3/12.