Delhi Capitals came up with a brilliant bowling effort to pull off a 7-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, negating some brilliant late-order batting by Heinrich Klaasen and Washington Sundar in Match 34 of IPL 2023 on Monday.
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje and Ishant Sharma collectively got the better of Hyderabad's batting line-up, but in the end it was Mukesh Kumar who completed the victory for Delhi. With SRH needing 13 runs to win, Mukesh was handed the ball for the last over and conceded just 5 to help get Delhi past the finish line.
Washington Sundar had claimed 3/28 and three batters were run-out as Delhi Capitals were restricted to 144/9 in 20 overs. Though it looked like they had fallen 20 runs short, in the end, it proved enough thanks to the brilliant effort put up by the DC bowlers.
Delhi Elected to Bat After Winning Toss
Earlier, Delhi Capitals failed to capitalise on the powerplay, losing the Australian pair of Phil Salt (0) and Mitchell Marsh within the first five overs as they slumped to 30/2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck the first blow for Sunrisers Hyderabad when he had Phil Salt poking at and edging behind a wide-one to wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen.
Delhi Capitals' problems were compounded further when Washington Sundar struck a triple blow in the eighth over. He claimed DC skipper David Warner, who chose to bat first on winning the toss, attempted a slog sweep to Harry Brook at deep backward square leg. Warner had hammered Sundar for a four and six off successive balls in the fourth over, the six a slog-sweep that landed five rows into the stands.
A delivery later, Sarfaraz Khan, who was brought into the playing XI in place of opener Prithvi Shaw, played a similar slog sweep and found Bhuvneshwar Kumar making no mistake at the deep backward square leg.
From 58/4 in the eighth over, Delhi Capitals were reduced to 62/5 off the last ball of the over when Aman Hakim Khan, who slogged the previous delivery for four, played an ugly heave again but this time was caught skied a catch to Abhishek Sharma at the edge of the cover in the ring.
Manish Pandey and Azar Patel revived their innings a bit as they added 69 runs for the sixth wicket, taking them past the 100-run mark. Pandey scored 34 off 27, hitting two boundaries while Axar struck a run-a-ball 34.
But just when they were looking in a position to make a dash for a big score in the last five overs, Delhi Capitals lost three quick wickets -- losing Pandey, Patel and Anrich Nortje within 10 deliveries to slump from 131/5 to 139/8.
Axar Patel was castled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a superb yorker while both Pandey and Nortje were run out, going for a dicey second run as the SRH fielders did not make any mistakes. Washington Sundar recovered well from a fumble to send in a fine throw to the keeper to catch Pandey short. Nortje had a major confusion with Ripal Patel over a second run and was caught well short by Umran Malik with a good throw to the keeper.
Delhi Capitals were not done, as they lost Ripal Patel to a run out in the final over when wicketkeeper Klassen brought down the stumps with an underarm throw and Delhi Capitals could only manage a below-par 144/9.
Hyderabad's Chase
After Mayank Agarwal (49) had maintained the Sunrisers' chances with a crucial knock, Heinrich Klaasen (31 off 19 balls, 3x4, 1x6) and Sundar (24 not out off 15, 3x4) revived their chances after a middle-order wobble. Thanks to their efforts, Sunrisers Hyderabad needed 38 runs off 18 balls and after Klassen and Sundar claimed 15 runs in the 18th over bowled by Mukesh Kumar.
Nortje allowed SRH only 10 runs in the 19th over despite Sundar hitting a fine boundary. They needed 13 runs from the last six deliveries but Mukesh Kumar bowled a superb final over to win the match for Delhi. He allowed only five runs as SRH ended with 137/6 in 20 overs and fell short by a narrow margin.
Mayank Agarwal had kept Sunrisers Hyderabad in the hunt as he struck a 39-ball 49 as they recovered from a poor Power-play in which they managed to score only 39/1.
Delhi Capitals bowlers came up with a disciplined effort and kept the SRH batters under pressure, dried up the boundaries and claimed crucial wickets in the middle part of the innings as the asking rate kept climbing.
Axar Patel claimed 2-21 off his four overs, Kuldeep Yadav gave away only 1-22 in his four while Ishant Sharma had 1-18 in three as Delhi Capitals applied the screws.
Agarwal kept alive their hopes after Harry Brook (7) was out early, castled by Anrich Nortje with 31 runs on the board. Agarwal struck seven boundaries as he tried to get the better of the DC bowling. He and Impact Substitute Rahul Tripathi (15) added 38 runs for the second wicket. However, after both of them were out in quick succession, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost Abhishek Sharma (5) and skipper Aiden Markram (3) were sent back by spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel respectively as SRH slumped to 85/5 in the 15th over.
Heinrich Klaasen blasted a superb 19-ball 31 and Washington Sundar contributed a 15-ball 24 not out but in the end, their efforts went in vain as the SRH succumbed to the pressure and failed to win a match they should have won easily.
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