IPL SRL | DC vs SRH Evaluation Chart | Sunrisers prevail after bowlers dominate proceedings

IPL SRL | DC vs SRH Evaluation Chart | Sunrisers prevail after bowlers dominate proceedings

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Vijay Shankar played a fantastic cameo today

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There were fleeting moments of brilliance from batsmen but this game in the Simulated Reality League will be remembered for how the bowlers made the seed talk. Sunrisers eventually prevailed by a 20-run margin, thanks to a lower-order cameo from their very own ‘3-D man’ Vijay Shankar.

Match Review

After being asked to bat first, Sunrisers had a rusty start to their innings, with only 49 runs being added to the tally in the powerplay. A lot was dependent on how Williamson and Bairstow would approach things, but that soon faded away with the latter playing an un-Bairstow-like innings throughout his stay in the middle. Delhi bowlers did a great job in containing runs, reducing them to 112/4, but Vijay Shankar played the role of a fantastic finisher alongside Virat Singh, to guide the side to a comfortable total of 173 runs. 

For the kind of batting depth that Delhi possessed, it seemed to be a cakewalk, but in reality, it was anything but that. The famed young batting order found the first reality check when Prithvi Shaw took the long walk back to the pavilion followed by Dhawan’s slow batting. Everything seemed to have fallen off the radar when they lost their skipper Shreyas Iyer for 24. Pant tried his level best to bridge the gap but it didn’t stop them from losing the game by 20 runs. 

You can check out the scorecard and Match Tracker here.

Turning Point 

Ajinkya Rahane’s dismissal brought a screeching halt to the scoring rate, but the moment Sanjay Yadav dismissed both Shreyas Iyer and Marcus Stoinis on back-to-back deliveries, the result was a no brainer. Yadav, being a rookie, doing what he did, was just amazing and clearly demonstrated why Delhi Capitals need some sort of pure experience in order to do better as a team. 

Highs and Lows

When a bowler delivers one stingy over of incredible energy, when that bowler happens to be a fantastic craftsman-like Ashwin, you tend to rise with that moment. And it is extremely extremely difficult to look beyond Ravichandran Ashwin’s wicket-maiden in the fifth over to understand the course of the game. It turned the tide but more importantly, showed us what an ideal bowler-vs-batsman fight looks like. 

The high of the game was also associated with the ultimate low, even though it had hardly had a negative impact on the result. After three incredible overs of bat swing, when Ashwin bowled THAT over, everything seemed gloomy for the Sunrisers, with only one over seeing a double-digit score. It corresponded to the most boring phase in the game tonight.

Rating Charts

Powerplay exploitation: Hyderabad   4.5/10     Delhi    2/10

There was a certain kind of restraint with which Hyderabad approached their powerplay, but importantly, they found a fine 49 runs on the board. That they did this with Ravichandran Ashwin bowling up a wicket-maiden speaks a lot of their batting, but on a different note, another 10 runs would have been a great addition. I will blame Jonny Bairstow, who was stranded with a 9-ball 12 at the end of the 6th over, for that, more than David Warner. 

Positivity was a passing shower for the Delhi side as far as their approach to tracking down the total is concerned and losing two wickets on the top of that was just the last thing their fans would have wanted. Shikhar Dhawan seemed like auditioning for the Test side, with Ajinkya Rahane’s flames dropping before it could rise in full force. With Sandeep Sharma and Bhuvneshwar being extremely parsimonious, the Capitals could only score 38 runs, leaving the middle-order with a lot to do.

Middle over Manoeuvring: Hyderabad     4/10     Delhi    5/10

63 runs were all that could be scored in the nine-over middle-over phase for Hyderabad side and that says a lot. To put things into perspective, there was only one over when SRH batsmen managed double-digit runs, with the Delhi spin bowling unit, led by Ravichandran Ashwin, putting the ultimate chokehold. Bairstow failing to get going and eventually being dismissed for a 23-ball 28 just after Warner and Williamson’s dismissal made matters worse as the side was teetering on 112/4 at the end of 15th over.

It was a decent recovery for Delhi in the middle-over phase as far as the run-scoring temperament is concerned, with it yielding 72 runs, but DC had lost three wickets to virtually transfer the game to the opposition kitty. This was a phase that had the ability to enable the momentum chain and Rishabh Pant, with his fearless batting, showed a glimpse of staging an upset, but in the bigger picture, that rendered too little, too late as Delhi were still 63 runs behind with five overs of the game remaining.

Death Bowling:  Hyderabad    7/10     Delhi   3.5/10

After having strangled Hyderabad to their own beat of Cold Play, Delhi bowlers cut loose at the death, allowing their former player Vijay Shankar to do some Dhum Dance. The Tamil Nadu man, who usually takes his own sweet time to get going, launched a scathing attack directly with new SRH recruit Virat Singh giving him company. Delhi pacers conceded runs in a tickle as the home side scampered to a comfortable total of 173/6 - adding a total of 61 runs in the last five overs - at the end of 20 overs, with Shankar ending up unbeaten on 38.

Pant, who swaggered into the side, with the intent of finishing off the game in style, was on the right track and all he needed was a helping hand from someone like Keemo Paul. But the Caribbean star was dismissed for a run-a-ball 15 before Pant himself was dismissed, just a couple of runs short of a half-century. The Sunrisers bowling line-up was at the top of their mark, giving away 42 runs in the phase, in which Sharma led the way. It was the closure of a staggering performance that ended up with a 20-run victory.

Match Frenzy O Meter  - Good

Well, this was an entertaining game. The tempo changed in between but for a neutral fan, it mattered for little. Easy to pass it off as average but nah, this was a great game of T20 cricket.

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