Sunrisers Hyderabad survived a late fightback to knock Delhi Daredevils out of the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League and boost their own play-off chances.
With fast scoring difficult on a sluggish pitch and slow outfield, the Sunrisers tried to force the issue and lost both openers cheaply. Shikhar Dhawan mistimed a clip to mid-on for 13, then three balls later David Warner failed to fully connect with a pull shot and was caught at midwicket for 17, leaving them 31 for two in the fifth over.
Eoin Morgan, who made a match-winning half-century in his previous outing, ground out a partnership of 33 from 39 balls with Moises Henriques, but was caught at long-off looking to inject some life into a dour innings.
With scoring uncharacteristically difficult for this competition, it was difficult to judge what a good total would be. Little more could have been asked of Henriques though as he, with support from Ravi Bopara, made a hard-fought 74 from 46 balls – his good strike rate for the most part thanks to the number of twos picked up as the pair ran well between the wickets and five late sixes. The Australian’s well-timed acceleration towards the end of the innings ensured that they made a challenging score.
The new opening combination of Quinton de Kock and Shreyas Iyer failed to arrest the poor run of form by the Daredevils’ top order, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the wicket of Iyer caught and bowled for a seven-ball duck.
However De Kock, undeterred by the struggles of those before him, played a fine innings in his first match of the season, reaching 50 in the eighth over from 29 balls; the fastest by a Daredevils player in this year’s competition. However he was stumped three balls after getting to his half-century without adding another run.
At this point Warner, the Sunrisers captain, turned to his spinners and, like their Delhi counterparts, they slowed the scoring rate dramatically. Though the Daredevils had looked well set, De Kock’s wicket prompted a collapse as first Yuvraj Singh holed out for yet another low score – how on earth did he fetch more than $2m in the auction? – and Duminy was bowled by Karn Sharma.
Any lingering hopes the Daredevils may have had in this competition realistically rested on Kedar Jadhav and Saurabh Tiwary, as they went into the final five overs of the innings with the required run-rate at 12. The former struck a hugely impressive 24-ball half-century of his own but, despite remaining unbeaten at the end on 63, he was unable to drag his team over the line as Bhuvneshwar and Ishant Sharma held their nerve at the death.
