We were catching up after SRH amassed 125 in powerplay: Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant admitted that Delhi Capitals (DC) were chasing the game after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) openers amassed a whopping 125 runs in the powerplay on a belter of a track at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday, April 20.

The in-form duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma put the Delhi bowlers to the sword with their clean hitting and helped the Sunrisers notch up the highest powerplay score in Indian Premier League (IPL) history. The previous highest powerplay score in the IPL was 105/0 registered by Kolkata Knight Riders versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2017.

"I think powerplay was one of the differences. They got 120-130 [125] runs in the powerplay and we were catching up throughout the match," the Delhi captain admitted at the post-match press conference as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

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Really happy with how we closed out: Pat Cummins

Sunrisers posted a mammoth 266/7 in their 20 overs after Travis Head (89 off 32 balls) and Shahbaz Ahmed (59 not out off 29 balls) scored swashbuckling half-centuries and Abhishek Sharma (46 off 12 balls) and Nitish Reddy (37 off 27 balls) made crucial contributions as well.

In reply, Jake Fraser-McGurk (65 off 18 balls) and Abhishek Porel (42 off 22 balls) stitched an 84-run partnership off 30 balls to give the Capitals hope of pulling off the highest run chase in IPL history. However, disciplined bowling from Sunrisers through the middle overs and at the death helped the 2016 champions eventually register a comfortable 67-run win after dismissing Delhi for 199. T Natarajan finished with career-best T20 figures of 4/19, while Mayank Markhande and Nitish Reddy chipped in with a couple of wickets each.

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SRH skipper Pat Cummins heaped praise on his bowlers for executing well under pressure on a pitch that wasn't offering much assistance.

"We saw in the powerplay, there was not much in it for the bowlers for both sides. Once the game got on, the ball got softer and it started to hold a little bit. But 260-odd plays 200 [means it] is a good batting wicket. Normally dew makes it hard [to grip the ball]. It slides on. But there was a little bit of grip out there, so maybe that was a factor also," Cummins said.

"Really happy with how we closed out. It was really disciplined, everyone was strong with their fields and how they wanted to bowl and executed well on the fly. It was not easy when they are trying to hit a six every ball," the ODI World Cup-winning captain added.