(IPL) Sunrisers Hyderabad posted their highest run chase of the VIVO IPL 2018 and reclaimed their place at the top of the standings yesterday. After opting to bowl and restricting the visiting Delhi Daredevils to 163, SRH chased down the runs off the penultimate ball, winning the match by seven wickets.
On a challenging surface at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, the Delhi Daredevils rode on an attractive half-century from Prithvi Shaw and a useful 44 from Captain Shreyas Iyer. The rest of the Daredevils batsmen struggled to force the issue; from 95-1 at the 10-over mark, DD could only add 68 runs in the back half. Vijay Shankar’s 13-ball 23 – which included 16 runs off the final over – was chiefly responsible in taking DD past the 160-mark.
SRH were provided the perfect platform for their chase with Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan adding 76 runs – the team’s best opening partnership this season. After the openers were dismissed, the batsmen who followed batted smartly, keeping the scoreboard ticking even if they didn’t find the boundary for a period of more than six overs. Kane Williamson was a calming presence at the crease, scoring at a run-a-ball, while Manish Pandey contributed 21 from 17 balls; the third wicket pair added 46 runs in 6.1 overs to take their team closer. Right at the end, Yusuf Pathan struck two fours and two sixes in his 27 not out – made from 12 balls, to complete the job. SRH were the beneficiary of two dropped catches; Maxwell put down a sitter off Hales when the batsman was on nine, and Vijay Shankar dropped Yusuf when he was yet to score a run.
Alex Hales used power, nifty footwork and cricket smarts while at the crease to score 45. The opener plundered three sixes in one over of Avesh Khan; he deposited the first one over the midwicket boundary, hit the second one – a length delivery – over long-off, and collected a third six in the same over when he flayed a wide delivery over the point fence. The Englishman looked good for a big score, but in the ninth overplayed down the wrong line to lose his off-stump to the leg-spinner Amit Mishra.
Kane Williamson’s unbeaten innings of 32 too merits a mention here for the way he controlled the run-chase; the SRH captain never looked uneasy at the crease and never pressed the panic button – despite the fast-climbing required run-rate, and despite not finding the boundaries. His 30-ball innings contained 18 singles, 4 twos, and one six – a short delivery upper-cut over the third man fence. Among the Delhi batsmen, Prithvi Shaw impressed with his stroke play once again; the teenager drove fluently – off the front foot and the back foot, played attractive on-the-rise strokes and even brought out the pull shot to the short-pitched deliveries. He dominated the second wicket partnership with his captain – contributing 58 runs to the 86-run stand, and brought up his half-century off 25 balls. The young lad would go on to make a career-best 65, before he miscued a Rashid Khan delivery to be caught at short third man; he hit six fours and three sixes in his 36-ball outing.
It wasn’t the typical free-flowing Shreyas Iyer inning, but on a surface where scoring runs was a difficult task, the DD captain persevered and helped himself to 44 off 36 balls. Shreyas’ innings contained 20 singles, three boundaries and two sixes – the big hits coming off Rashid Khan and Shakib-al-Hasan. He too looked good for a big score before he hit a Siddarth Kaul delivery straight down the throat of the fielder at midwicket.
Shikhar Dhawan started slowly but accelerated as the innings unfolded; he was 4 from the first ten balls he faced, and then accelerated scoring 29 from the following 19 balls. He was castled by the leg-spinner Amit Mishra in the eleventh over. The left-hander hit two boundaries and one six – the big hit coming off a free-hit delivery off Avesh Khan.
The two leg-spinners in the match – Rashid Khan and Amit Mishra – had excellent outings. While Rashid finished with figures of 2-23, Mishra’s figures were even better – 4-0-19-2.
Rashid, after conceding nine runs in his first over, struck with the first delivery of his second spell when he dismissed Prithvi Shaw and broke a threatening 89-run partnership. His two-over spell in the middle read 2-0-12-1. He came back to bowl the 17th over of the innings in which he dismissed Rishabh Pant, while only conceding two singles.
Mishra bowled his four on the trot between overs 7 & 13, dismissing both the well-set openers. He castled Hales in the 9th over and then dismissed Dhawan in a similar fashion – this time with a delivery that skidded on.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who returned to the SRH XI – bowled three good overs, before a bad final over ruined his figures. His first spell figures were 2-0-8-0, the one over in the middle cost him 8 runs, but the final over – the 20th over of the innings – went for 17 runs. Bhuvneshwar finished with figures of 4-0-33-0.
Stat of the Match
Rashid Khan, aged 19 years and 227 days, became the youngest to play 100 T20 matches.
Brief Scores:
Delhi Daredevils 163-5 (Prithvi Shaw 65, Shreyas Iyer 44, Rashid Khan 2-23) lost to
Sunrisers Hyderabad 164-3 in 19.5 overs (Alex Hales 45, Shikhar Dhawan 33, Kane Williamson 32*, Amit Mishra 2-19) by 7 wickets.
Man of the Match:
Rashid Khan, for his spell of 4-0-19-2.
