Rabada, Morris trigger SRH collapse as Delhi snatch win
HYDERABAD: The Delhi Capitals bowlers upstaged their Sunrisers Hyderabad counterparts to help them achieve a third straight win, by 39 runs, and rise to second in the standings on Sunday.
A 72-run opening stand between David Warner and Jonny Bairstow had set the platform for the other Sunrisers batsmen to build on but they imploded on home turf.
Capitals’ bowlers didn’t get deterred after they had been restricted to 155/7, dismissing Sunrisers to 116 in 18.5 overs. They checked Sunrisers batsmen from hitting boundaries and with pressure piling up, they lost Bairstow (41) and skipper Kane Williamson (3) – both dismissed by Keemo Paul (3/17) -- during that period. Warner tried to break the shackles but looked energysnapped. His 47-ball 51 wasn’t one of his fluent innings in this IPL. He had a couple of reprieves as well – one mishit falling just short of deep mid-wicket and a few deliveries later a full-blooded shot hit straight back didn’t stick in Amit Mishra’s hand.
But the Australian southpaw’s luck ran out soon after reach his fifty, holing out off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada, failing to judge a slower one, at mid-off. The very next ball Vijay Shankar perished and with it diminished any chances of a Sunrisers fightback. Sunrisers lost seven wickets in the space of 10 runs, folding for 116.
SRH coach Tom Moody had admitted during the pre-match press conference that middle-order was a cause for concern, and they did ring in the changes for
this match. Williamson, playing only his second match this season, looked rusty. Vijay Shankar, after doing well initially, has struggled to get going.
Ricky Bhui and Abhishek Sharma, brought in place of Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan, struggled throughout their brief stay.
While Paul and Rabada had got Capitals to the finish line, Chris Morris’ triple strike in the 18thover killed any chances of Sunrisers mounting a late comeback.
One of the concerns for Capitals will be the failures of their batsmen to build on starts, especially Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. Both have just one fifty to their credit.
Earlier, Sunrisers’ bowling again delivered by restricting Capitals to 155. Leading the pack was Khaleel Ahmed, who was playing his first match of the tournament.
The left-arm pacer bowled with pace and accuracy to trouble the batsmen. Bhuvneshwar Kumar too was on the money, producing his best spell of this IPL.