Delhi Capitals bowlers showed greater discipline under pressure, despite shoddy catching, to help the team post a 39-run win and mar the script in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 100th match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.
The middle-order failed again and there was not much to rave about the Sunrisers batting, except the perfect start by David Warner and Jonny Bairstow (72 off 59 balls).
Then it all began. Bairstow, after playing some extravagant strokes, including a striaght six off Chris Morris, lofted Keemo Paul straight to long-off.
In his next over, Paul saw captain Kane Williamson’s attempted loft taken brilliantly by a diving Kagiso Rabada at mid-off that put the brakes on Sunrisers’ chase.
Paul completed a three-wicket haul without conceding a single boundary.
Soon, Rabada struck a double blow in the 17th over, removing Warner and Vijay Shankar. In the 18th, Morris struck thrice and later, Rabada finished with a four-wicket haul to ensure there were no more twists and turns as Capitals pulled off a remarkable win.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals, put in, was rattled by left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, who justified his inclusion with a splendid first spell.
His diagonal line forced opener Prithvi Shaw to slash into wicketkeeper Bairstow’s gloves. Shikhar Dhawan then pulled a bouncer from the left-armer only to be caught in the deep in the fourth over. At the other end, Colin Munro was confidence personified as he first essayed a classy cover-drive to the fence and then pulled the next ball for a six.
Munro’s cameo soon came to an end as he played a cut away from his body off 18-year-old left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma, and edged to the wicketkeeper in the eighth over. Both Khaleel and Abhishek were playing their first match of IPL-12.
Captain Shreyas Iyer and southpaw Rishabh Pant then added 56 off 47 balls for the fourth wicket to raise Capitals’ hopes before the former slashed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and was caught behind in the 16th over.
Pant, too, was dismissed in the next over after his one-handed shot off a low full-toss from Khaleel went straight to long-on.
Their dismissals meant Capitals ended with a far less challenging score even as Bhuvneshwar claimed his 100th wicket for Sunrisers.
