Delhi Capitals defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad and claimed a winning share for the IPL trophy, where the opposition was completely out in all three departments of the game. SRH elected to bat after winning the toss but the decision was reversed after David Warne was dismissed on the third ball. Wriddhiman Saha tried to counter-attack but he too was beaten for pace as Enrique Nortje took two wickets in quick time. SRH kept losing wickets on time and were 61/4 at one point. Captain Kane Williamson was dropped not once but twice, but that didn’t stop him from playing his shots. He paid the price as he was caught on the boundary off Axar Patel. Both the South African-Nortje and Kagiso Rabada hunted in packs. Delhi never felt the urge to go ahead with Avesh Khan as the African duo were on the money for the most part of the night, except in the last over of the SRH innings where Rabada went for 15! Meanwhile Nortje’s stats read 4-0-12-2. SRH managed to post a target of 135 which never looked dangerous as Delhi Capitals had a solid batting line-up.
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Later, with the early dismissal of Prithvi Shaw, the Capitals’ top order came in full swing. Shikhar Dhawan (42 off 37) along with Shreyas Iyer (47* off 41) thwarted SRH’s attack and created a solid platform to launch his push. Captain Rishabh Pant (35 off 21) dismissed Khaleel Ahmed for a big six at mid-on.
Earlier, Abdul Samad (28 off 21, 2x4s, 1×6) tried his best to increase the run-rate with Rashid Khan (22 off 19 balls) but that too went in search of a quicker run, Miss-time pull to DC skipper Rishabh Pant off top-aging A Rabada. Rashid’s innings before being run out with the help of two fours and a six. Bhuvneshwar Kumar remained unbeaten on 5 off 3 balls. For DC, Rabada took 3 for 37, while Enrique Nortje (2/12) and Patel (2/32) took two wickets each.
(with PTI inputs)
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