IPL 9, Match 42 Review: Delhi Daredevils dare SRH at their home

The Sunrisers Hyderabad locked horns with the Delhi Daredevils at their home ground in Hyderabad. The game was a crucial one for both the teams. While a win for the Sunrisers would have guaranteed them a place in the playoffs, a win for Delhi would have helped them swap places with the Mumbai Indians in the points table and get back in the top four.

The target of 146 never looked enough. A crucial 72-run stand between Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson seized the game for the Daredevils. The SRH bowlers, who have been hogging all the limelight this season, went off-color on the night and remained ineffective as Daredevils snatched a 7-wicket victory.

Having won the toss, the Delhi Daredevils opted to bowl first. The Sunrisers Hyderabad openers, David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan, did not get to the flying start that they are known for; rather played with caution and seemed very cautious in their approach. They did not lose any wicket in the powerplay and gradually picked up pace as well. The duo put on 51 in the powerplay and had an opening stand of 67 runs in 53 balls before Warner misjudged a straighter one from Jayant Yadav. The Aussie opener hit 6 fours and a six in his innings of 46 that came off 30 balls.

In walked Kane Williamson to join Dhawan, who was playing his conventional second fiddle role. Dhawan’s resistance was broken by Amit Mishra in the 13th over and he was dismissed on 34 off 37 balls with 3 fours. Yuvraj Singh hammered one to the midwicket fence to announce his arrival but that ended up being his only boundary hit of the night. He became Mishra’s second scalp of the match. Moises Henriques could only manage a golden duck and was trapped in front of the stumps by Mohammad Shami.  No other batsmen could show any resilience at the crease and the wickets kept tumbling. Deepak Hooda became the second Sunrisers batsman this season, after Yuvraj, to be dismissed hit wicket. A decent contribution from Williamson, 27 off 24 balls, saw Sunrisers crawl to a total of 146/8 in their 20 overs.

The Delhi Daredevils started their onslaught right from the word go during their run chase. They did not bother much about the very strong bowling lineup of Sunrisers Hyderabad. They lost Mayank Agarwal soon to Ashish Nehra, but the in-form batsman Quinton de Kock carried his good form with the bat. He was joined by Karun Nair, who looked good for his 17-ball 20 before being castled by Moises Henriques. Sanju Samson was the new man in. De Kock continued plundering the SRH bowling. His counter attack was stopped by Henriques when he edged one to Naman Ojha’s gloves. Albeit there was no edge but, the umpire ruled it against him. Quinton scored 44 off 31 before getting out.

Rishabh Pant and Samson then joined hands to make the SRH bowling look like an ordinary one. Pant, in particular, did something that wasn’t done in this edition of IPL before, he took a toll on Mustafizur Rahman. The 17th over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar saw 14 runs coming from it, which almost sealed the game for the Daredevils. With 16 needed off 18, the match was heading away from SRH. The U19 wicketkeeper made a mockery of Mustafizur’s economy as he thrashed him for 13 in the 18th over. With 3 needed off the last two overs, Samson finished off in style with a maximum. Rishab scored an unbeaten 39 off just 26 balls with 3 sixes and a couple of boundaries. Samson remained unbeaten on 34 off 26 balls with 2 sixes.

Interestingly, Mustafizur, who has an economy of just over 6 prior to this game, went for 39 runs in his 4 overs with an economy of 9.75 and didn’t find a single success. Delhi Daredevils won the match by 7 wickets.

Brief Scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 146/8 in 20 overs (D Warner 46; N Coulter-Nile 2/25)

Delhi Daredevils – 150/3 in 18.1 overs (Quinton de Kock 44; M Henriques 2/19)

Man of the match: Chris Morris

How did Twitter react to the game? – Twitter Reactions: Pant, Samson star as DD route SRH at their own backyard