Delhi Capitals take down Sunrisers Hyderabad to seal top spot
Delhi Capitals eased past Sunrisers Hyderabad to go top of the table of the IPL 2021 standings. Requiring 135 runs to win, Rishabh Pant’s men completed the run chase in the 18th over to leave the Men in Orange at two points, the lowest in IPL 2021 so far.
Nortje and Patel put Delhi in control
The Capitals came out all guns blazing as Anrich Nortje removed David Warner on the third ball of the innings. That set the tone for the rest of the innings as the Sunrisers struggled to get any momentum in their batting. Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson scored only 18 runs off 26 balls, before falling to Axer Patel.
The last season’s runner-ups suffered a huge setback in the ninth over when Marcus Stoinis came off the pitch because of an injury. Ravichandran Ashwin completed his over. This is also a big blow for Australia considering Stoinis is part of their T20 World Cup squad scheduled for next month.
However, that setback was just a meaningless distraction as the Capitals dried the Sunriser’s boundaries. By the 15th over, the 2016 champions were struggling at a run rate of six runs per over.
The problems compounded after the dismissal of their hard-hitter, Jason Holder. It took Delhi the seventeenth over to get to triple figures. That alone shows how much of hard work it was for their batsmen.
Abdul Samad and Rashid Khan ensured some pride for the Sunrisers as they finished with 134/9. Anriche Nortje was the pick of the bowlers for Pant’s men as he took two wickets and gave just 12 runs in his four overs. Meanwhile, Axer Patel continued his impressive form with the bowl to show that he is more than ready to take his team one step further this season.
Iyer, Pant put the Capitals on top
Delhi Capitals’ innings started off with a flourish as Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dawan tried to take the match away from Hyderabad straight away.
However, the right-handed batsman fell to Khaleel Ahmed in the third over. In the first ten overs, the 2020 runner-ups decided to match the required run-rate and not lose any wickets. They did exactly that as they sat at the score of 69/1 at the halfway mark.
However, Rashid Khan got the all-important scalp of Dhawan in the next over to make the match interesting. The run rate wasn’t a problem for Pant’s men as they had to score hardly more than a run a ball to get over the line. Shreyas Iyer proved to be their catalyst as he hit consecutive boundaries off Sandeep Sharma in the fourteenth over to put the men in blue in the driver seat.
In the last five overs, Delhi required 36 runs to win. Pant smashed Bhuvaneshwar Kumar for a six to get the required run rate under six.
In the 17th over, Delhi’s skipper hit Khaleel Ahmed for a four and a six to ensure that it was just a matter of time before the men in blue clinch the win. There were no late heroics like Rajasthan’s win on the previous day as the Capitals got over the line in the eighteenth over. Iyer and Pant finished unbeaten at 47* and 35* respectively.
