Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan unbeaten partnership helped Sunrisers Hyderabad crush Delhi Daredevils by 9 wickets in the 42nd match of VIVO IPL 2018 played at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi. Delhi captain won an important toss and batted first, Pant batted superbly and helped DD to post a competitive total. Captain and Dhawan chased down the target with ease.
Delhi Daredevils captain Sheryas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Prithvi Shaw and Jason Roy got off to a steady start putting on 21 runs for the first wicket. Shakib AL Hasan dismissed both openers in successive balls to put pressure on Delhi Daredevils. At the end of six overs, Delhi scored 38 for 2.
After the powerplay overs, DD captain Sheryas Iyer was run out to leave hosts in big trouble at 43 for 3. Harshal Patel and Pant steadied the innings with good aggressive batting by both batsmen. Both of them added 55 runs for the 4th wicket. After Harshal Patel was dismissed, Pant took the charge with some brilliant hitting and reached his half-century off 36 balls. After completing his half-century, the hard-hitting batsman smashed the SRH bowlers to all parts of the ground.
He continued his aggressive batting and became the first Indian to score a century in VIVO IPL 2018 off 56 balls. In the final over, Pant smashed 26 runs off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and remained not out on 128 off 63 balls. Both Pant and Maxwell added 63 runs for the 5th wicket. Maxwell only faced 8 balls in the partnership.
Delhi Daredevils scored 54 runs off the last 3 overs to post a competitive total of 187 for 5 in 20 overs. For SRH, Shakib AL Hasan picked 2 wickets for 27 runs.
Chasing 188 runs, Sunrisers Hyderabad openers Alex Hales was dismissed by Harshal Patel for 14 runs. Shikhar Dhawan and SRH captain Kane Williamson steadied the innings with good stroke play. At the end of 6 overs, SRH scored 51 for 1.
After the powerplay overs, both batsmen continued their positive intent against Delhi Daredevils bowlers. Shikhar Dhawan came back into form with 50 off 30 balls while Kane Willamson continued his impressive run in IPL 2018 scoring his 6th half-century off 38 balls. Both remained not out and helped SRH to win the match by 9 wickets.
With this win, SRH has qualified for the playoffs stage. Harshal Patel was the only wicket-taker for Delhi Daredevils.
SRH 191 for 1 in 18.5 overs ( Shikhar Dhawan 92*, Kane Williamson 83*, H Patel 1/32) beat
DD 187 for 5 in 20 overs (Pant 128*, Shakib Al Hasan 2/27) by 9 wickets.
DD captain Sheryas Iyer: After losing two wickets in powerplay overs was not good, but Pant batted superbly to give us a competitive total of 187. It is going to be important to win the remaining matches and do well as a team.
Captain Kane Williamson said: It was very happy to see our team execute the plans with the bat. We restricted them to a par total on this pitch. There was a little bit of dew but not much. It was a good wicket to bat on and got some momentum with some aggressive batting. Pant played a special knock but Shikhar and I did the job.
Man of the match Shikhar Dhawan said: Pant played a great knock and took the game away from us. We had the belief that we need to go out and play with a positive mindset. Looking forward to upcoming games to score more runs for the team.
With this loss, Delhi Daredevils have been knocked out of IPL in 2018.
Rajasthan Royals will take on Chennai Super Kings in tomorrow”s match at Sawai Man Stadium, Jaipur.
