New Zealand’s Corey Anderson led the charge with quickfire 41 off 24 balls as Delhi Daredevils chalked out a convincing six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad to stay alive in the 10th edition of the IPL at the Feroz Shah Kotla here on Tuesday.
In reply to Hyderabad‘s 185 for 3, Delhi crossed the target scoring 189 for four in 19.1 overs.
This was Delhi’s third win in nine matches and they still have five fixtures in the hand of which four are to be played here. Hyderabad once again failed to break the jinx of losing away matches. They have by now played 11 matches and have 13 points in their kitty
Delhi were once again without their regular captain Zaheer Khan, who is injured and Karun Nair led the side for the second time running.
Delhi made two changes from the side which was bowled out for 67 in their previous match against Punjab. All-rounder Angelo Mathews and off-spinner Jayant Yadav were inducted replacing Sam Billings and left arm Shahbaz Nadeem.
Interestingly, both Mathews and Yadav had last played in their away match against Sunrisers on April 19, a match which Delhi lost by 15 runs. Hyderabad made one change bringing in batsman Deepak Hooda in place of spinner B Sharma.
Karun Nair opted to field after winning the toss and Hyderabad responded aggressively as Yuvraj Singh smashed 70 of 41 balls and his quickfire unbeaten 93- run fourth-wicket partnership with Moises Henriques 25 propelled the visitors' score to 185 for 3.
Chasing a daunting target of 186, Delhi started confidently with openers Sanju Samson and Karun Nair going after the bowlers as the two put up 40-run for the first wicket in just 4.1 overs before Samson departed.
Samson who hit Siraj Ahmed for a six over long on in the second over, lost his focus when he was well set and gave an easy straight catch to Dhawan off Siraj. He scored 24 off 19 balls, hitting two boundaries and a six.
Karun Nair and Rishab Pant added 32 runs for the second wicket in 3.3 overs before Nair virtually threw his wicket away. He pulled Siddarth Kaul aimlessly only to be caught at long-off by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. His 39 came off 29 balls and included two sixes and five boundaries.
Rishab Pant chipped in with 34 (2 b,4×4, 1×6) while S.Iyer tore apart visitors bowling hitting 33 off 25 balls which included three sixes and a boundary.
But by the time Iyer left, Delhi were well within the victory zone. Corey Anderson and Chris Morris then turned the heat on Hyderabad bowlers and took a sweet revenge.
Anderson did Hyderabad to what the visitors had done to the host bowlers.He hit three sixes and two fours while Morris hit a six and a four in his 15. The two added 41 runs off 13 balls to help their team collect full points after five successive defeats.
Earlier, Hyderabad were off to from the a rollicking start with the in- form opening pair of Skipper David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan putting 53 runs on the board in under six overs.
The Hyderabad skipper in his 21–ball 30 hit a six off Jayant Yadav over deep point and cracked four boundaries. However, he became bit too over ambitious and lost his focus and cool only to be clean bowled by Mohd Shami
Three overs and 22-runs later the hosts managed to get rid of dangerous Shikhar Dhawan as he miscued a shot only to be caught at deep square leg by S.Iyer off-spinner Amit Mishra. The opener knock of 28 came off 17 balls and included a six off Chris Morris over deep mid wicket and four boundaries.
Delhi earned another quick breakthrough when Shami got rid of Kane Williamson (24, 1×4,1×6) when the score was 92. The batsman was caught by Morris at deep square leg but before that he hit a six off Jayant Yadav over cover.
After the quick start, the visitors found it hard to keep the same tempo as Shami and Amit Mishra bowled intelligently and forced the batsmen to go into their shell.
The first five overs produced 49 runs, in the next five overs saw only 34 runs were put on board at the expense of two wickets. 31 runs and a wicket came in next five overs but it was sheer mayhem in the last five overs which produced 71 runs.
Yuvraj led the carnage and was ably supported by Henriques and poor fielding and a lackluster bowling by Morris and Rabada.
Yuvraj was lucky to have survived an easy chance when he was on 29 and team score was 129. The left-handed batsman was dropped by Sanju Samson off Morris at deep square leg and after that, there was no looking back for the batsmen.
Yuvraj sent the bowlers on a leather hunt and runs came from all over the park. The boundaries came in galore as Delhi fielders caved in under pressure and allowed many a runs convert into boundaries.
Yuvraj in the process scored his second fifty of this IPL and 25th overall in T20. His half-century came off 34 balls.
Rabada had a nightmarish four-over spell in which he conceded 59 runs, Morris gave away 36 runs while Shami got two wickets for36 runs. Mishra got a wicket for 33 runs.
Yuvraj hit 11 boundaries and a six in his belligerent knock while Henriques’s 25 came off 18 balls and were studded with two hits to the fence.