Pathan’s fiery knock helps Sunrisers sink Daredevils
hyderabad — A brutal onslaught by Yusuf Pathan (27 not out off 12 balls) was the limelight of the evening as hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad held on to their nerves to beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets with a ball to spare en route to booking a playoff berth in the Indian Premier League on their home turf at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday.
With seven wins from nine games, Sunrisers now have 14 points and are placed ahead of Chennai Super Kings via better net run-rate. Chasing Daredevils’ modest total of 163 for five wickets, the hosts were put on path to victory thanks to a brilliant opening partnership of 76 runs between Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan.
Hales, who was the more aggressive of the two smashed three sixes and as many boundaries before he was clean bowled by Amit Mishra for a well compiled knock of 45 off 31 balls.
Mishra struck once again when he bowled Dhawan after the southpaw had scored 33 off 30 balls.
However, the Delhi oufit’s visions of clawing back into the game was kept at bay as the Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey added a valueable 46run partnership. But with 32 needed off 18 balls, Pandey (21 off 17 balls) holed out to Shaw off the bowling of Liam Plunkett, thus reigniting Daredevils’ hopes.
Tenisions ran high as Williamson and Yusuf Pathan put their act together with 28 runs needed off 12 balls. Pathan, who is known for his huge-hitting prowess did exactly what was needed as he lofted Trent Boult for a huge six off the first ball. Having played a dot ball Pathan then smashed a boundary as Boult conceeded 14 runs in the penultimate over.
But the job was far from done as Hyderbad yet had to score 14 runs to win the match off the last over bowled by Dan Christian. Pathan scrambled for a couple off the first ball and followed it up with a huge six in the second ball.
Daredevils looked in dismay as Pathan smahed the third ball to the ropes and crossed over for single to give Williamson to do the honours of hitting the winning runs. Williamson duely obliged by spanking the ball to the fence to give Hyderbad a thrilling win.
Earlier, teenaged sensation Prithvi Shaw’s 65-run knock followed by skipper Shreyas Iyer’s 44 helped Delhi Daredevils post a moderate 163/5 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Shaw and Iyer overcame a poor start to put together 86 runs for the second wicket after Delhi lost off-colour Glenn Maxwell cheaply.
While Shaw’s knock was laced with six boundaries and three sixes off 36 balls, Iyer faced 36 deliveries, hitting three fours and couple of sixes.
Opting to bat, Delhi were off to a poor start as Maxwell (2) once again failed to contribute after being run out in the second over with Delhi’s score being nine runs.
Maxwell’s dismissal saw Iyer joining in-form opener Shaw in the middle and the duo helped their side recover from the early jolt taking Delhi past the 50-run mark in 5.4 overs.
Just when Delhi were inching closer to the triple digit score, young Afghanistan sensation Rashid Khan came with a muchneeded breakthrough for the hosts. A top edge by Shaw landed safely at short third man off the leggie’s delivery in the 11th over.
Incoming batter Rishabh Pant then forged a 30-run stand for the third wicket with his skipper before pacer Siddharth Kaul dismissed Iyer in the 16th over. — Agencies