IPL 2017| Delhi pull off consolation win over SRH

Karun Nair won the toss for the Delhi Daredevils and opted to field first on the day. For the Delhi side, Angelo Mathews replaced Sam Billings and Jayant Yadav replaced Shahbaz Nadeem. Nair said his side looked to move on from their heavy loss to Kings XI Punjab.

Having scored a splendid 126 in the last game against Kolkata Knight Riders, David Warner once again started off in typical fashion, finding the boundaries with ease and even switch-hit Jayant Yadav for a six in the third over. Soon Shikhar Dhawan got in on the act too and at the end of four overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad were going along nicely at 40/0. Karun Nair brought on Mohammad Shami in the final over of the power play in the hope of getting a much-needed wicket and the move paid dividends as he cleaned up Warner in the 6th over, but at the end of the power play the defending champions were still in the driving seat at 66/1. Amit Mishra removed Dhawan shortly after, in the 9th over, and at the halfway stage of the first innings, Delhi had managed to pull things back with the Sunrisers at 83/2.

Singh is King:

Having got their collective eye in, Henriques and Yuvraj realized the need to finish with the flourish. Sanju Samson dropped a sitter off Chris Morris with Yuvraj on strike in the 17th over and it proved to be a costly miss as the southpaw smashed a four and a six off Kagiso Rabada in the 18th over that eventually cost the Delhi Daredevils 20 runs. Yuvraj then brought up his 50 with consecutive boundaries in the penultimate over. In the final over, Yuvraj smashed 18 runs, which included 4 boundaries complete with a helicopter shot for the last, to finish their innings at a commendable score of 185/3.

Keeping the asking rate in mind, Sanju Samson and Karun Nair started the Delhi Daredevils chase on a positive note, with a few initial boundaries and after 4 overs Delhi were on track at 40/0. Mohammad Siraj removed Samson off the first ball of the fifth over as he held out to Shikhar Dhawan. But Nair continued his fight after being dropped by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 5th over, and at the end of the power play Delhi had amassed 62/1, thanks to 16 runs from the final powerplay over. Siddharth Kaul dismissed the well-set Karun Nair in the 8th over while on 39 after the Karnataka batsman found Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the boundary. Pant smashed consecutive boundaries off Henriques in the 10th over and at the halfway stage, Delhi were ahead of the required rate at 96/2.

Mohammad Siraj came back to clean up Pant with a yorker, immediately after being pulled for six in the 12th over. But despite the loss, Shreyas Iyer tore into Yuvraj Singh in the next over with back to back maximums as Delhi seemed on track to claim an upset victory. And with five overs to go, the odds were stacked in Delhi’s favor as they needed just 45 runs more to win.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to give the defending champions some hope as he dismissed Shreyas Iyer for 33 in the 16th over. But Corey Anderson and Chris Morris ensured that the Delhi Daredevils got home with 6 wickets to spare to seal a consolation victory over the defending champions.