Delhi Daredevils won the toss and opted to bat first against a strong bowling line-up of SRH. Prithvi Shaw and Jason Roy opened the innings. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the first over.
DD did a straight and strategic starts. DD were 16/0 after 3 overs. Batsmen were getting restless due to a slow run rate. Pressure paid-off for SRH and Shakib sent both the openers back to the dugout. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were the two new men in. DD were struggling at 38/2 after the powerplay. Consecutive dot deliveries built pressure and Shreyas got run-out due to a miscommunication. Harshal Patel was the next batsmen in. DD were 48/3 after 9 overs. DD’s batsmen had to resort to sweep shorts to survive the over. DD was under pressure. Rishabh Pant was not having a great night and continued to struggle against Rashid in the 12th over. He did get boundaries but the DD were 81/3 after 12 overs.
A partnership was building up between Harshal and Pant. DD stood at 111/4 after 15 overs. Pant was shooting the ball all over the ground for boundaries, he was unstoppable.
Wonderful knock of 128 runs from Rishabh Pant, took DD to a high score of 187/5.
Chasing the competitive total of 188 runs, Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad while Trent Boult bowled the first over. Harshal Patel came to bowl the 2nd over and Patel came back after hit for 2 consecutive boundaries with Hales’ wicket.
Then Captain Kane Williamson came in and there was a huge understanding and accuracy between bith the batsman. The parthnership seemed like non-breakable partnership and it remained till they got the target. Shikhar added 92 in 50 balls, while kane summed up with a four and ends up with 83 in 53 balls. SRH won the match and score was 191/1, 18.5 overs.
What a win this from SRH! They were thoroughly clinical in their pursuit of what looked like a tall order, but Williamson and Dhawan were just too good on the night. Rishabh Pant lit up the Delhi night-sky with some incredible hitting, but was clearly not enough to keep his team afloat.
With this, Delhi Daredevils have been knocked out of the competition while Sunrisers Hyderabad become the first team to qualify for playoffs.
Overall viewers enjoyed all the sessions.
Ankit Vaishnav
