Marcus Stoinis, Shikhar Dhawan and Kagiso Rabada played pivotal roles as Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 17 runs in Qualifier 2 of the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in Abu Dhabi yesterday to set up a final showdown against Mumbai Indians.
After putting up 189/3 on the board on the back of Dhawan’s 78, Shimron Hetmyer’s 42 and Stoinis’ 38, DC limited SRH to 172/8 to make it to their first ever IPL final.
Needing 190 runs to win, SRH suffered a big blow as Kagiso Rabada dismissed David Warner in the second over.
Manish Pandey and Priyam Garg, though, counterattacked to take SRH to 36 after the end of the fourth over.
However, Stoinis struck twice in the fifth over to dismiss both batsmen. First, he disturbed the timber to get Garg out and then had Manish caught at mid-on.
SRH were in need of a partnership and Kane Williamson and Jason Holder did just that to bring some stability to the SRH chase.
The pair added 46 runs together but just when it looked like the two were looking to up the ante, Axar Patel struck to dismiss Holder in the 12th over.
Abdul Samad then joined Williamson in the middle before SRH crossed the 100-run mark in the 13th over with a six from Williamson. The two put up a solid fight to keep SRH’s hopes alive.
Young Samad went after Nortje in the 15th over, hitting the speedster for two fours and a six before he and Williamson scored 10 runs in the 16th over to bring down the required target to 51 runs from 24 balls.
While Williamson creamed a four in the 17th over, he got out in the same over as Stoinis scalped his third wicket of the match, dismissing the SRH batsman after his well-compiled 67 off 45 balls.
Although Rashid Khan and Samad teamed up to hit two sixes and a four in the next eight deliveries, Rabada’s three-wicket over ended SRH’s hopes. The right-arm pacer had Samad caught after his 16-ball 33-run blitz and then dismissed Rashid and Shreevats Goswami as DC restricted SRH to 172/8 to seal the win.
Earlier, DC, who elected to bat, made two changes to their team with Hetmyer and Pravin Dubey replacing Daniel Sams and Prithvi Shaw. SRH, meanwhile, retained the same playing XI.
Stoinis was promoted at the top of the order with Shikhar Dhawan and the duo made a watchful start. Stoinis got a life in the third over after Holder could not complete a catch at short mid-on and he made SRH pay immediately, hammering five fours and a six in the course of next nine balls as DC got a move on.
Dhawan joined the party as he hit three fours and a six in the next two overs as he and Stoinis powered DC to 65/0 at the end of the powerplay.
SRH were desperately looking for a breakthrough and Khan provided them with one as he ended Stoinis’ 38-run innings in the ninth over.
In the next over, Dhawan brought up his 50 and DC moved past 100. But SRH managed to keep the things tight in the next over four overs, conceding 24 runs, and that helped them to a wicket as Shreyas Iyer got out for 21.
Dhawan was then joined by Hetmyer and the two added 32 runs from the next three overs before hammering 18 runs in the 18th over, hitting four fours. However, Dhawan fell in the 19th over after scoring a fine 78 as DC eventually posted 189/3 on the board.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 189/3 (Shikhar Dhawan 78, Shimron Hetmyer 42*; Rashid Khan 1/26) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 172/8 (Kane Williamson 67, Abdul Samad 33; Kagiso Rabada 4/29) by 17 runs.
