Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma scythed through a hapless Delhi Capitals bowling attack with a scintillating unbeaten century as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted an imposing 242 for 2 on a placid track in an IPL match here Tuesday.
Abhishek (135 not out off 68 balls) was at his imperious best as neither Nitish Rana’s (0/55 in 4 overs) off-breaks bothered him nor did Lungi Ngidi’s (0/41 in 4 overs) dipping slower ones have any effect on his strokeplay as he smashed 10 sixes along with an equal number of boundaries.
Even with a relatively off-colour Travis Head (37 off 26 balls), he added 97 for the opening stand. Then skipper Ishan Kishan (25 off 13 balls) joined the party, adding another 79 runs for the second wicket in just 5.5 overs to create a beautiful launchpad for the final assault.
Towards the end, as Abhishek seemed a bit tired, Heinrich Klaasen chanced his arms to hit a quickfire 37 not out off 13 balls.
Delhi Capitals’ ploy of starting with an off-spinner, that too a mediocre part-timer like Nitish Rana (0/55 in 4 overs), backfired badly as he was given four overs in which he was hit for half a dozen sixes — all off left-handed batters.
The DC coaching staff headlined by Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao and head coach Hemang Badani have not exactly been at their tactical best throughout the tournament, and Tuesday was one such occasion.
Rana bowled a tidy first over, but then the second went for 20, and after strategic time-out, he was again given two more overs, out of which one went for 23.
Even skipper Axar Patel (1/23 in 2 overs) will have some answering to do as to why he, as a frontline spinner, didn’t complete his quota and why Kuldeep Yadav (0/30 in 2 overs) was not trusted after one bad over (22 runs), but someone like Rana was persisted with.
In all, the two and half spinners (half being Rana) that DC bowled with went for 108 runs in their cumulative eight overs.
The Powerplay overs yielded 67 but where DC completely lost the plot was during the middle phase between overs 7 to 15 in which 116 runs came, which is unacceptable.
The hallmark of Abhishek’s innings was how he adjusted the downswing of his bat depending on the bowlers — especially Ngidi, whom he played late and in front. It seemed like Abhishek was in a mood to exhibit his range-hitting skills, as most of his sixes were hit in front of the wicket.
It was a slightly slower century by his standards. Even then, Abhishek managed a strike-rate northwards of 200 by completing his century of 47 balls. But he didn’t stop there as Sunrisers Hyderabad reached a score for which a chase looks quite improbable with the kind of batting depth that DC have.
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