David Warner sealed a win in his 50th Indian Premier League (IPL) match as captain after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) beat Delhi Capitals (DC) by 15 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and secured their first win of the Dream11 IPL 2020 yesterday.
After electing to bowl in Abu Dhabi, DC kept SRH openers – Warner and Jonny Bairstow – in check, bowling some tight lines, and the approach almost gave them their first wicket in the fifth over after Bairstow was hit onto the pads. While DC opted for a review, Bairstow as the on-field decision of not-out stayed.
SRH, though, started to make a move as Warner hit a six and four in the last over of the powerplay and Bairstow hit one across the ropes in the 7th over as SRH crossed the fifty-run mark.
The Warner-Bairstow duo, meanwhile, was lightening fast between the wickets, sprinting across for the singles and doubles. The SRH skipper started to open his shoulder, hitting Ishant Sharma for a six and reverse-sweeping Amit Mishra for a four.
However, DC struck in the 10th over to dismiss Warner, after the left-hander was adjudged out via DRS after gloving one to the wicketkeeper, giving Mishra his first wicket. The leg-spinner struck once again in his next over as Manish Pandey holed out in the deep in the 12th over.
Kane Williamson, playing his first game of the season, then, joined Bairstow in the middle and SRH moved past the 100-run mark in the 14th over. A couple of overs later, Williamson played a couple of cracking shots off Anrich Nortje to push SRH close to 130. In the 17th over, the New Zealand skipper took on Marcus Stoinis, hitting two fours.
Bairstow, then, brought up his fifty in the 18th over, but departed in the same over as Kagiso Rabada dismissed the SRH opener for 53.
Following Bairstow’s fall, Abdul Samad, making his debut, came out to bat. The young right-hander hit a four and a six and scored an unbeaten 12 off 7 balls.
Williamson, meanwhile, got out in the final over after scoring a valuable 41 off 26 balls and SRH posted 162/4 in their quota of 20 overs.
Defending 162, SRH struck in the first over as Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Prithvi Shaw out two.
DC skipper Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan, then, added 40 runs together, but Rashid Khan’s introduction into the attack gave SRH their second wicket as Iyer fell for 17 after being caught by Samad in the deep.
The leg-spinner struck soon after as he got the wicket of Dhawan. The DC opener got out in the 12th over after scoring 34.
In the next over, Abhishek Sharma could not hold on to a sharp chance to dismiss Rishabh Pant and the DC wicketkeeper-batsman made SRH pay for the same with two successive sixes.
Two overs later, Shimron Hetmyer went big and slammed two sixes off Khaleel Ahmed’s bowling as DC moved past hundred. But, the West Indian batsman got out in the next over, trying to go for another big hit, as Bhuvneshwar scalped his second wicket of the match.
Pant, though, hit two fours in the same over as DC moved to 114/4 after the end of the 16th over.
Rashid returned to bowl his final over of the day and the 17th over of the innings, and got Pant’s wicket after the left-hander went aerial and Priyam Garg pouched one safely in the deep.
T Natarajan then trapped Marcus Stoinis before the wickets in the 18th over. DC needed 37 off the last two overs and Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded not more than nine runs in the penultimate over.
While DC scored 12 runs in the last over, SRH managed to seal a 15-run win.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/4 (Jonny Bairstow 53, David Warner 45; Kagiso Rabada 2/21) beat Delhi Capitals 147/7 (Shikhar Dhawan 34, Rishabh Pant 28; Rashid Khan 3/14) by 15 runs
