Hyderabad: Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad pace attack ran through the Delhi Capitals batting line-up to limit the visitors to 133/7 in the Indian Premier League here Monday.
With their play-off hopes hanging by a thread, SRH put DC in to bat on a testing surface. The shot selection of the away team’s batters also contributed to their downfall.
DC were left reeling at 29 for five in 7.1 overs with captain Cummins causing the maximum damage.
Cummins had Karun Nair caught behind on the very first ball of the match with a good length ball around the off-stump. It was a rather loose shot from the DC batter first up.
Faf du Plessis departed in Cummins’ following over, a failed attempt to put the relentless Australian away for a boundary. Not getting any loose ball from Cummins, South Africa went for a pull on the charge, only to be caught by the wicket-keeper.
Cummins’ third victim was Abhishek Porel, who was caught after mistiming a flick.
Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat then got into the act by dismissing Axar Patel and KL Rahul respectively. The in-form Rahul went for a drive on the up but ended up edging it to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.
It was one-way traffic until Tristian Stubbs (41 not out off 36) and impact player Ashutosh Sharma (41 off 26) combined to take DC to a respectable total. They shared a 66-run stand off 45 balls.
Sharma was able to break the shackles by depositing leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari for a couple of sixes over long-on in the 15th over.
Stubbs did not look as comfortable as Sharma in the middle but managed to provide much-needed support to the latter. The South African could find only four boundaries, with the last one coming off the final ball of the innings.
