Delhi Daredevils paid the price for flawed team selection and poor fielding as Sunrisers Hyderabad pushed them towards exit door with a seven-wicket victory in an IPL encounter, here on Saturday.
Yusuf Pathan (27 n.o. off 12 balls) and skipper Kane Williamson (32 n.o. off 30 balls) kept their calm surpassing the 164-run target in 19.5 overs on a tricky surface. Pathan’s dropped catch by Vijay Shankar was one of the game changing moments during the chase.
Despite Amit Mishra’s (2/19 in 4 overs) brilliant bowling, the lack of second specialist spinners hurt Delhi dearly as Avesh Khan (0/47 in 3 overs) and Dan Christian (0/37 in 3.5 overs) gave away 84 runs in less than seven overs which proved to be decisive.
Sunrisers maintained their pole position with 14 points from nine games while Delhi after their seventh defeat are almost out of the competition. Only a mathematical possibility remains if they win all their remaining four home games.
Opener Alex Hales (45, 31 balls) was dropped by Maxwell at deep mid-wicket boundary off Avesh Khan’s bowling when the batsman was on 9.
It was Amit Mishra, who finally got the much need breakthrough with a brilliant delivery.
It was a copybook leg-break that pitched on good length and turned sharply as it beat Hales’ lunging willow to clip the off-stump.
India opener Shikhar Dhawan (33 off 30) was the next to depart when he yorked himself trying to slog sweep Mishra and was clean bowled.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils could not cash in on the brilliant platform laid by young Prithvi Shaw as Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted them to 163 for 5 in stipulated 20 overs.
Shaw smashed 65 off 36 balls but after scoring 95 in the first 10 overs, DD managed only 67 in the back 10 with the pitch getting slower and the odd delivery holding up.
Leg-spinner Rashid Khan (2/23 in 4 overs) was the most impressive bowler for Sunrisers as he put the brakes in the second half of the Delhi innings.
Shaw once again provided a blazing start, reaching to his second IPL half-century in only 25 balls. His innings had six boundaries and three huge sixes.
He teed off with six over long on off Sandeep Sharma and then lofted Shakib Al Hasan inside out for his second maximum.