Washington Sundar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar shared five wickets between to expose Delhi Capitals' batting frailties as Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted the visitors to a below-par 144 for nine in the IPL in Hyderabad on Monday. (More Cricket News) | (Scorecard)
Off-spin allrounder Sundar (4-0-28-3) ended his six-match wicketless run in style to take three wickets in five balls to break the back of Delhi Capitals’ batting line-up after they opted to bat.
Then Bhuvneswhar came up with a parsimonious spell of 4-0-11-2, which included the key wickets of Phil Salt (0) and Akshar Patel (34) to rattle Delhi further.
Delhi Capitals slipped from 57 for 2 to 62 for 5 after the powerplay, and had their backs firmly pressed against the wall.
Axar Patel (34) and Manish Pandey (34) saved some blushes for the misfiring side which has lost five out of six matches while languishing at the bottom in the points table.
The association between Pandey and Patel began in the ninth over after Delhi Capitals were left tottering by Sundar.
The two Indian batters took time to find their feet, which meant that Delhi Capitals had to bat out a few overs before they could attack again.
The pair did well to add 69 runs for the sixth wicket from 59 balls as their partnership took Delhi Capitals past the 100-run mark and prevented a total collapse.
Patel hit a run-a-ball 34 with four hits to the fence while Pandey was run out following a brilliant throw from deep midwicket by Sundar soon after, for a 27-ball 34 (2x4s).
If the poor show by the specialist batters underlined Delhi’s hapless state once again, a couple of run outs in the back end made it even more embarrassing.
The tone was set earlier by Bhuvaneshwar who struck on the third delivery to get Salt caught behind by Heinrich Klaasen and kept David Warner silent for the majority of his opening spell.
The Delhi captain, who broke the shackles to get a four and a six off Sundar in the fourth over, perished right after the powerplay with the spin bowling all-rounder running through the middle-order in the eighth over.
It was certainly not a memorable return to Hyderabad for Warner, who perished for a 20-ball 21, caught at deep square leg by Harry Brook on the second ball while trying to sweep.
Delhi sunk further as comeback batter Sarfaraz Khan (10) was the next to fall to the sweep shot, on the fourth delivery from Sundar, caught by Bhuvneshwar at deep backward square leg.
Aman Khan struck a first-ball four but got a top edge off Sundar on the final delivery.
DC's No 3 Mitchell Marsh began with four boundaries off Marco Jansen in the second over, which got them 19 runs but he was deceived by a slower delivery from T Natarajan, who had the batter trapped leg-before for a 15-ball 25 (4x4s).
