Delhi Daredevils were without captain Zaheer Khan who missed his second game of the season because of a niggle. Chris Morris stepped up and unfurled cutters, fast yorkers, slower yorkers, and bouncers. Amit Mishra tested Sunrisers Hyderabad with googlies and claimed two wickets, both with seam-up balls, clocked at over 110kph. Nathan Coulter-Nile, playing his second game of the season, impressed in the end overs as the bowlers triggered Sunrisers’ disintegration, after a fast start from David Warner. From 80 for 1 in the first ten overs, Sunrisers finished with 146 for 8. Warner later said that they were 20-30 runs short.
Quinton de Kock took charge of the chase. The cuts and the pick-up shots flew off his bat. He looked unstoppable until he was given out caught behind by umpire Marais Erasmus, despite no signs of a nick, after a prolonged appeal. De Kock slashed at a short, wide ball and a clicking noise came from his helmet falling onto the ground. When he was dismissed for 44 off 31, Daredevils needed 69 off 61 balls and Mustafizur Rahman had three overs left. Sunrisers had hope but the 21-year old Sanju Samson and 18-year old Rishabh Pant showed nous to end Sunrisers’ four-match winning streak.
Daredevils’ stand-in captain JP Duminy identified a “collective bowling performance” as the key to their sixth win in ten games. Mishra was introduced into the attack in the 11th over, after offspinner Jayant Yadav completed a tidy spell. Jayant gave the ball plenty of air in his three Powerplay overs. His reward, though, came off a quicker ball when Warner backed away outside leg, played inside the line, and had his leg stump pegged back for 46 off 30 balls. Mishra cranked up his pace in his second over, ending Dhawan’s patient 34 with a 114kph seam-up ball. The fizzer accounted for Yuvraj Singh as well, as a leading edge carried to short fine leg. The shaky middle order was exposed.
Mohammed Shami made another dent when he pinned Moises Henriques lbw for a duck. The ball wasn’t coming onto the bat and stroke-making was difficult. Kane Williamson aimed to force the pace before he was bowled by an inswinging Morris full toss for 27 off 24 balls. He capped his spell by kicking an inside edge, that rolled back up the pitch, onto the stumps to effect the run out of Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 1. Deepak Hooda stepped on his stumps off the bowling of Coulter-Nile in the 19th over. Naman Ojha was caught at square leg off a full toss in the last over. Daredevils picked up five wickets in the last five overs for 33.
The returning Mayank Agarwal was De Kock’s fifth opening partner in Daredevils’ last five games. He began brightly with a lofted drive to the left of mid-on for four. Agarwal was undone by the slowness of the pitch when he sliced Ashish Nehra to extra cover in the fourth over. An unfazed de Kock took Nehra for back-to-back boundaries in the same over before cutting Mustafizur for four.
De Kock’s blows meant that Daredevils closed the Powerplay at 50 for 1. Henriques, however, dismissed Karun Nair and de Kock in the tenth over to tighten the chase. Samson and Pant settled it in Delhi’s favour and took them to No.3. Samson got into his groove with a pick-up swat over midwicket while Pant launched Mustafizur over long-on. Three balls later, Pant whipped Mustafizur for four to reduce the equation to 39 off 36.
Pant maintained a stable base and went on to score 26 off Mustafizur from 13 balls, the most by any batsman against the Bangladesh seamer in a T20. That Mustafizur missed his yorkers marginally helped Pant’s cause. Samson finished the chase with a pulled six and the night ended with Nehra warmly embracing Pant.