IPL 2024: Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 35th Match - Who Said What?

A total of 465 runs were scored in the match between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday, April 20. As a neutral spectator, that’s all one wants but from the bowler’s perspective, one needs to talk about the future of the game. After Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata, Delhi too have built a surface that heavily favours the batters as the Pat Cummins-led side broke as well as was on the verge of breaking many records against DC tonight.

Batting first, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma gave the best start possible. The duo hit 125 runs in the powerplay, which is the highest ever in the history of the format. Both openers wreaked havoc from the very start as Head made 89 runs off 32 deliveries, while Abhishek hit 46 runs off 12 deliveries and was very close to scoring the fastest half-century in IPL 2024.

Also Read: Top 5 Fastest Fifties for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL History

After they went back to the pavilion, the run rate dropped significantly but Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed batted well, with the latter even scoring a half-century. Courtesy of an unbelievable batting performance, SRH posted 266 runs on the board, which proved to be enough in the end but it wasn’t the case all the time.

Delhi were equally ruthless with the bat in the second innings. Despite losing two early wickets, the duo of Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abhishek Porel didn’t back out as they kept DC in the hunt for a long time. Jake went on to hit the fastest half-century in IPL 2024 as he made 65 runs off 18 deliveries while Porel hit 42 runs off 22 balls. Even when they got out, DC were in the hunt, but a poor batting performance afterwards ruined their night.

Also Read - Twitter reacts as Delhi Capitals' Jake Fraser-McGurk scores fastest fifty of IPL 2024

1. Silent heroes ft Kuldeep and Natarajan

On a night where batters dominated heavily and broke records, Kuldeep Yadav and T Natarajan produced brilliant performances. Despite leaking 55 runs in four overs, Kuldeep picked up four wickets and that was very important, as his brilliant performance stopped SRH from crossing 300 against DC. In the second innings, Natarajan was phenomenal, as he picked up four wickets as well, giving away just 19 runs in his four overs, which is phenomenal, to say the least.

2. The Bludgeon brothers

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma looked unstoppable in IPL 2024. The duo once again bossed the opponent and played a key role in helping SRH register the fourth-highest total in IPL history. Against DC, they stitched a partnership of 131 runs and if other franchises don’t figure out how to get better of them, SRH can eventually walk away with the championship.

3. Poor captaincy from Rishabh Pant

Giving the ball to Lalit Yadav twice in the powerplay was a mistake, especially when Head and Abhishek are in brilliant form and taking on bowlers. That was a tactical blunder from Pant, as it helped the openers settle down pretty early. Later, with the bat, Pant played a very slow knock, hitting 44 runs off 35 balls, which may jeopardise his spot for the T20 World Cup.

Losing skipper Rishabh Pant said:

I think the only thought process behind it was there could be dew which didn't come (on choosing to bowl first), but we would still have had a chance had we restricted them to 220-230. The powerplay was the difference, they got (125) runs and we ended up playing catching up after that. The ball stopped more in the 2nd innings, that was more than we anticipated, but when we needed to chase 260, 270, you'll need to keep scoring. Hopefully, we'll come up with more thought process and a clear mindset going forward. His batting has been phenomenal (on Fraser-McGurk), he's been nice for us, that's what we need to do as a team, be together, look at areas where we can improve going into the next game.

Winning skipper Pat Cummins said:

Good record here, another great game of cricket. Need to keep that going. There wasn't much for the bowlers in the powerplay. Got better for the bowlers when the ball got softer. Very excited to see them batting, but got to bowl in the second half. We were really disciplined with the ball, the bowlers executed their plans.

POTM Travis Head said:

It's nice, we are on a roll. Boys are playing well, very enjoyable. Just tried to stay relaxed and hit the ball. Need to keep things simple, need to react to the balls. Very pleased to continue with the same form. He (Abhishek Sharma) plays well in the powerplay. He's aggressive against spin, just let him do his things. Very enjoyable partnership with him. It's hard to pick which guys are going to be the (impact) sub, everyone can bowl and contribute. Nice to have a lot of options, we are able to score such high scores because of so many options available. It has also been difficult for our bowlers in the powerplay, but we did an exceptional job tonight. Just getting back into the swing of things (in the shortest format), nice to be batting top of the order.