CRICKET NEWS - It’s fortress Hyderabad for the Sunrisers who won their fourth consecutive home match in the IPL to defeat the Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs on Wednesday night.
The visitors faced an intimidating task of scoring 192 for victory after Kane Williamson celebrated his first appearance in this year’s competition with a magnificent 89 in just 51 balls as he propelled his team to an impressive 191/4.
The Daredevils made an encouraging start to their run-chase, outscoring their opponents in the power-play to reach 56/1. But just when Sanju Samson and Karun Nair’s second-wicket partnership of 71 began to look really threatening, skipper David Warner gave part-timer Yuvraj Singh his first bowl in the competition.
The move paid off immediately in the 10th over, with Nair being run out and then the in-form Rishabh Pant holing out to long-on off consecutive deliveries. It was a big blow for Delhi who never quite looked as dangerous again despite a rapid unbeaten 50 in 31 balls from Shreyas Iyer, another promising knock from opener Samson (42 off 33 balls) and a useful 31 from Angelo Mathews.
In the end, 24 were needed off the final over from Siddarth Kaul and the youngster – much like he did against the Kings XI Punjab – was more than equal to the task as he kept the batsmen relatively quiet with a series of yorkers.
Delhi might have regretted not batting their dominant allrounder, Chris Morris, up the order, as the South African with a strike rate of 240 in the competition didn’t face a ball.
