The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) registered a comprehensive win of 88 runs over Delhi Capitals (DC) in a do-or-die match in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Tuesday. The Orange Army decided to drop Jonny Bairstow from the XI and replaced him with Kane Williamson in the line-up while Wriddhiman Saha came out to open the innings David Warner, and the decision paid off big time.
The new opening duo came out all guns blazing as it was Saha who played his shots first and from the fourth over, and once he got his eyes in, Warner started smashing even the likes of Ravi Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, and Anrich Nortje. The SRH skipper celebrated his birthday with a 25-ball half-century and helped his team to reach a total of 77/0 in the powerplay, the highest score after six overs this season. Warner and Saha added as many as 107 runs for the opening wicket, but it was Ashwin who managed to fox the former.
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After Warner’s dismissal, the run-rate increased further with Saha throwing his bat literally at everything. Manish Pandey played the supporting role during the 63-run stand for the second wicket which came off just 29 balls. In the process, Saha scored his half-century off just 26 balls and didn’t stop there. He took a toll on the other DC bowlers as well and he was looking set for a well-deserved century, but he got out to Nortje but not before slamming 87 off just 45 deliveries.
The platform was set for Pandey and Kane Williamson and they added 49 runs in off their last 33 deliveries after Saha got out. SRH eventually posted a mammoth total of 219 runs on the board for the loss of two wickets. Rabada had an extremely bad day at the office and most importantly, he lost the streak of going wicket-less for 25 consecutive matches was broken. He conceded 54 runs in his four overs while the rest of the Delhi bowlers were expensive too.
DC batsmen weren’t comfortable chasing a big total as Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed on a golden duck and the move of promoting Marcus Stoinis also failed. At 14/2 after two overs, and then, Shimron Hetmyer and Ajinkya Rahane crawled through for a 40-run stand but failed to up the ante, and soon after the powerplay, Rashid Khan dismissed them both.
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Rashid ended up with his IPL career-best figures of 3/7 in his four overs as Axar Patel was his third scalp as he also joint-second fewest runs in four overs in IPL history ever. Rishabh Pant tried his best to play his shots but DC had no momentum to their innings at any stage. The southpaw only managed to score 36 off 35 deliveries with three fours and a six and the contest was ended way before. SRH’s every bowler bowled well to bundle out the opposition for just 131 winning the game by a huge margin of 88 runs.
Hits
David Warner
David Warner has been doing well in the IPL 2020 ever since his first game and all eyes were on him and he started his innings cautiously, after hitting a couple of fours in the 4th over, there was no looking back for Warner as he smashed 66 off 34 balls with the help of eight fours and a couple of sixes.
Wriddhiman Saha
Wriddhiman Saha did not take long to make a comeback as he played a stable knock as a replacement of Jonny Bairstow. He smashed 87 off just 45 balls. He built solid partnerships with Warner and Manish Pandey of 107 and 63 runs respectively. He smashed twelve 4s and a couple of sixes.
Flops
Tushar Deshpande
Tushar Despande never looked at his best against the SRH batsmen as he gave away 14 runs in his second over and when he came out to bowl in the 17th over, he conceded as many as 15 runs.
Kagiso Rabada
Rabada had an extremely bad day at the office and most importantly, he lost the streak of going wicket-less for 25 consecutive matches was broken. He conceded 54 runs in his four overs while the rest of the Delhi bowlers were expensive too.
