Delhi down & out of play-offs

Pant’s century comes to no avail as Hyderabad thrive on Williamson-Dhawan’s 176-run partnership

Powered by a 176-run partnership between captain Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan, Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday cruised to a breezy 9-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils here at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

The Sunrisers now have 9 wins in 11 matches and sit at the top of the table, while the Daredevils have nothing but pride to play for in the outings they have in hand for the season.

An early dismissal for Sunrisers’ opener Alex Hales (14 off 10) may have caused an upsurge in the spirits of Delhi Daredevils against table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad, but in terms of encouragement, that was all the hosts had for the entire course of the visitors’ innings.

Following Hale’s departure by an LBW, Sunrisers Captain Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan ran riots upon the Daredevils’ bowlers and fielders as they cruised to a comfortable 9-wicket victory with seven balls to spare.

The duo shared a balanced partnership of 176 runs off 102 balls with Dhawam tallying 92 off 50 balls and Williamson, 83 off 53 balls.

Williamson and Dhawan seemed to be having quite a stroll in the park as they faced no compilations in keeping the run-rate above the required margin across all overs.

The visitors crossed the 50-run mark before the sixth over got over. Delhi’s bowling department seemed to have lost the plot, with Harshal Patel recording the unit’s best average economy at 8.00. Patel was also the only bowler who claimed a wicket for Delhi.

The next 50 runs came in the next five overs as the Williamson-Dhawan duo got more comfortable on the pitch with each passing minute.

By the end of the fourteenth over, the visitors crossed 150 runs only to make matters worse for Delhi.

Earlier, Rishabh Pant put behind a couple of running errors that had cost Delhi Daredevils two crucial wickets to smash an unbeaten knock of 128 in 63 balls, including 15 fours and seven sixes.

Riding on Pant’s blistering form had Delhi sealed their innings with 187 runs, which was supposed to be a challenging one for their opponents.

Opening alongside Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy greeted the opponents with the first boundary of the match after connecting with a Sandeep Sharma delivery in the second over.

However, Delhi’s woes began early in the fourth over as Shikhar Dhawan caught a miscued Prithvi Shaw shot off a Shakib Al Hasan delivery.

The Bangladeshi spinner claimed Roy’s wicket right in the next delivery, giving the hosts no room to recover with two wickets for 21 runs with both Prithvi Shaw and Jason Roy dismissed at 9 and 11 runs respectively to give way for skipper Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.

In the final over of the powerplay, Pant took Siddharth Kaul’s bowling spell for a rampage, hitting four boundaries (all fours) in three deliveries to put Delhi at 38/2, and allowing room for hope that there was still a certain load of ammunition in the Daredevils’ lineup.

But the next over changed that. Captain Shreyas Iyer got run out after scoring just three runs as he broke into a sprint for a single while Pant decided to stay put at the batting end. The error made it three wickets gone for Delhi before even reaching the 50-run mark.

The first big hit of Delhi’s innings came only in the eleventh over as Harshal Patel, quite unexpectedly, cleared Siddharth Kaul’s short length delivery with a powerful shot over mid-wicket to launch the ball out for a six.

The boundary proved to be a turning point for the fates of the Daredevils as Iyer and Patel combined to tally 42 runs in three overs, taking their partnership to 50 runs in 30 balls including two sixes from Patel.

But miscommunication once again took the better of Delhi as Pant, first deciding to go for a second run, quickly changed his mind to stay at the crease as Patel frantically tried to sprint back to safety only to fail miserably.

With that wicket, the Pant-Patel partnership ended at 55 runs in 37 balls as Delhi summoned Glen Maxwell  to join the fray at 98/4.

Pant completed his half-century in the next over with a sensational six off a Shakib Al Hasan delivery as Delhi dragged past the 100-run mark after fourteen overs. He then continued to dominate his position on the field as he smashed four sixes and as many fours in the next four overs as he approached his century.

Pant sent the ball out for another four in the nineteenth over to reach his maiden IPL century after connecting well with a Siddharth Kaul delivery.

In the final over, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar dismissed Glen Maxwell for nine runs with an off stump delivery which the Australian miscued to gift Alex Hales an easy catch. This ended Maxwell's 63-run partnership with Pant, in which the latter had more than a lion's share of runs (52).

But there were still five balls to go, and Pant was determined to completely put behind his running errors to wrap up the innings in style. Which he did by smashing Bhuvneshwar.

With two 4’s and three 6’s in the last five balls, Pant walked off the pitch with an unbeaten 128 off 63-ball knock which allowed Delhi to put up a challenging 187-run target before Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The visitors overcame the challenging chase with visible ease to remain at the top of the table with an extension in their lead over second placed Chennai Super Kings.

For Delhi Daredevils, this season will be one they would like to forget as soon as possible.