Kane Williamson anchored the chase in the final overs. (Source: IPL)
Sunrisers Hyderabad took the chase to the final over but it was, in the end a very well constructed chase. Delhi Daredevils reached 163 largely thanks to Prithvi Shaw’s impressive innings at the top of the order. But apart from him and Shreyas Iyer, no one really could handle Hyderabad’s bowlers, especially Rashid Khan between the 13th and 16th over. For SRH, on the other hand, all their top order batsmen chipped in and in the end, Kane Williamson and Yusuf Pathan provided the finishing touches. SRH go top of the table with this win while Delhi Daredevils’ hopes of making it to the playoffs have all but dissapeared.
IPL 2018 Live, SRH vs DD: Sunrisers Hyderabad are in splendid form this season. (Source: IPL)
Highlights
Dominant performance by SRH. IT may have gone down to the last over but this has been a very well constructed chase from the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Dan Christian truly bottled that final over though. If he had any plan in mind, Yusuf Pathan hit that out of the park. In the end, they did it with one ball remaining.
Pathan survives, and in fact takes control during, Trent Boult's over. There was a single off the last over which means it will be him and not Williamson facing the first ball that is bowled by.......Dan Christian.
Yusuf Pathan hits the first ball of the penultimate over for six and then takes the next one to the pads. He and Williamson run two but umpire gives him out LBW. Williamson tells Yusuf to go for the review and as it turns out, the ball had pitched outside leg stump.
Full outside off and Pandey goes big, ends up slicing it. Prithvi Shaw has a lot to do though, he keeps running back, keeps his eyes firmly on the ball and completes the catch.
They need 39 to win off 24 balls. This is it, SRH hold the edge simply because it is Williamson and Pandey in hthe middle. The SRH captain is not letting the bad ones go now, as was shown when he shuffled and almost jumped to ramp up a short ball over backward point for six in the 15th over.
It had been exactly six overs since SRH last hit a boundary before Manish Pandey gets two in a row. The first four came up because of a mistake between Trent Boult and Jason Roy, both of whom though that the other one is going for the dive and ended up not stopping the ball at all.
It has been 36 balls since we last saw a boundary, not for the want of trying though. There seems to be very little coming off the pitch and so, while Williamson and Pandey are going for it, they are unable to get more than two runs off a ball.
Cautious from Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson. SRH's required run rate is now 9.71 runs per over and they need 68 to win off 42 balls.
Mishra strikes again and this time it is Dhawan. Pitched on middle and Shikhar completely misses the sweep. That is a wicket off an extra ball - Mishra had bowled a wide just before this. That was supposed to be the last ball of the over but the extra ball has turne out to be a nice thing for Delhi.
Like Delhi in the first innings, SRH have wickets in hand and they have made a good amount of runs in the first 10 overs. Delhi lost their way in the after the 14th over. SRH have experienced in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson in the middle and it looks like at least one of them will have to see their side through.
Hales bamboozled by the Mish! Round the wicket, pitched at leg and turned all the way to clip the bail on top of off stump. That spun all the way across Hales' body and there is absolutely nothing the Englishman could have done about that. Delhi get their breakthrough.
No more fireworks after that sixth over which gave the SRH chase a boost. Hales has got to 44 off just 29 balls.
Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan open up their arms and the ball is flying tio the stands. Avesh Khan opens with a no ball and the free hit is clobbered for six by Dhawan. They take a single and then Alex Hales hits Avesh for two consecutive sixes to bring up the 50 for SRH.
Glenn Maxwell bowls the fourth over and it has turned out to be a rather good one for the Daredevils, just four runs off it. The match is on an even keel at the moment but the fact that they have managed to conserve wickets means SRH might just claim an edge here.
That was a sitter if there ever was one. Hales pulls this short ball from Avesh Khan, Maxwell at deep square leg is completely off balance, the ball settles in his hands and pops right out. The horror show continues for him.
Boult keeps Dhawan on his toes and there is not much he could do about it. Just one run came in that over. Had there been a wicket, this would have been the perfect start for them.
Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan walk out to open the innings for the Sunrisers, Trent Boult starts the attack for Delhi Daredevils.
17 runs off the last over, most of it scored by Vijay Shankar, who smashed a four and a six. He and Dan Christian then managed to run three runs off the last ball. That is a good finish in the end but Delhi know that they have not made as much as they could have early on. Prithvi Shaw remains the stand out performer.
Into the final over, Siddharth Kaul and Rashid Khan have put the breaks on Delhi's innings here. It did look like a 180-plus score as on the cards when Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw were chugging along but too many wickets were lost in the two overs bowled by Kaul and Rashid.
Short on middle and Pant completely misses this one, hits him on the thigh pad and Sunrisers go up in appeal. Replays show that umpire's call stands and that was out. So Daredevils lose another. There was a time when they were 125/2. That was just over an over ago.
The dreaded Yes/No situation and Delhi lose another, once again Rishabh Pant involved in it. Pant starts off but pulls back and Ojha has gone too much in front and can't make his way back. Saha clips off the bails easily enough.
One wicket and two extra balls in that over. This means that it is Delhi under pressure now that we enter the death overs. They do have wickets in hand but the recent spate of wickets has clearly shifted momentum Hyderabad's way.
Dhawan had made a proper fielding blooper in the previous over and let the ball go between his feet for four. This time he makes no mistake with the catch. Kaul bowsl full and straight to Iyer's pads and the latter flicks it straight to deep midiwicket. The captain departs for 44.
A brief lull as Iyer and Pant try to navigate Rashid Khan. Despite the fact that they lost Shaw recently, DD remain in a good position. They have managed to get to three figures with seven overs to go against one of the best bolwing attacks in the tournament and would be looking to put as much pressure as they can before Bhuvneshwar Kumar comes back in for the death overs.
Rishabh Pant replaces Prithvi Shaw in the middle. One gets the feeling that one more wicket would prove to be disastrous for Delhi Daredevils.
And his innings ends just like that. Tried to pick it from outside off with a sweep, the ball takes a top edge, and short third man takes it easily. A rather tame ends to what has been an excellent innings.
It has thus far been the Shaw show. Shreyas has chipped in but it has been Mumbai's 19-year-old prodigy doing most of the talking. He has scored 65 off 15 balls now.
It's Shaw all the way for the Daredevils and they are chugging along nicely now. He gets a four off the third ball of Rashid Khan's over. He and Shreyas run a few more to make it 9 off that over.
A fine innings from the U-19 World Cup winning captain. It has come off 25 balls but there have been no flashy shots. He has made it look like Delhi never lost a wicket.
Six over long off off the third ball and a pull over midwicket for four brings Delhi Daredevils to 52/1. Shaw then hits another four, this between keeper and short third man and then finishes the over by dispatching the ball along the ground to beat the man at covers and onwards to the boundary. A six and a hat-trick of fours, 20 runs off the 6th over.
Iyer and Shaw have been steady so far, although Shaw has been a little erratic in his communication with his team mate standing at the non striker's end. He has scored 29 so far and his innings has been punctutated by two sixes.
Captain Shreyas Iyer comes in to replace Maxwell who has had a bit of a shocker this season. He has played 9 innings so far and scored 133 runs averaging a paltry 14.77.
Sandeep Sharma bowls this one full and straight and Shaw hits it straight back at him. THe ball hits the stumps at the non striker's end and the Sunrisers appeal. Replays show that Sandeep had got a hand to the ball and Maxwell was well outside his crease. That's the first wicket and another fruitless innings from Maxwell.
Economic as usal from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, just two runs off that first over. It could have been three had Glenn Maxwell not tripped while running and the two batsmen had to make their way back to the crease.
It is Glenn Maxwell who walks out with Prithvi Shaw to open the innings and not Naman Ojha, which is what was the notion when Shreyas Iyer announced the team changes. Bhuvneshwar Kumar opens the bowling.
SRH XI: Alex Hales, Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson (C), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma
DD XI: Prithvi Shaw, Naman Ojha, Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Dan Christian, Liam Plunkett, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult
Kane Williamson flips the coin, 'tails' the call and Shreyas Iyer has won the toss, he elects to bat first. Williamson says Bhuvneshwar Kumar will play in the match. Basil Thampi sits out for him. Delhi bring in Dan Christian and Naman Ojha in place of Colin Munro and Shahbaz Nadeem.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have lost to Chennai Super Kings by six wickets which means that Delhi Daredevils have a genuine chance of nudging ahead of the bottom three with a win here. The only problem for them is that to get those points, they will have to negotiate arguably the best bowling attack in the tournament today.
Sunrisers Hyderabad would love to chase down a total after they know that they have the bowlers to defend low totals in IPL. What will they chose to do that if they win the toss?
Sunrisers Hyderabad have had the worst time with the bat. Thay have not clicked as a batting unit. But every time the batsmen fail, their bowlers come to the party and save them.