Sunrisers prevail in rain-hit tie

Delhi Daredevils’ barren home run continued following an eight-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad via the Duckworth-Lewis method at Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium here on Saturday.

This was the fourth successive loss at home for the bottom-placed Daredevils, who have been playing here since their return to India, and they are all but out of race for Play-offs. Rain, too, seemed to conspire against them. The groundsmen at Kotla had to lug the covers four times as the skies opened up intermittently. The target had to be revised thrice before being finally being trimmed down to 43 runs off five overs.

Resuming after the fourth rain interruption, Sunrisers needed to make 43 runs from five overs, having already scored 17/1 from two overs for the loss of skipper Shikhar Dhawan. Rahul Shukla briefly raised the hopes in the fourth over when he knocked down the stumps of Aaron Finch.

But David Warner and Naman Ojha went on the attack with hits to the fence to bring down the equation to just six runs from the final over.

Ojha, then scored the winning runs with a hit to mid-wicket off Laxmi Ratan Shukla. The victory sent Hyderabad to fourth place with eight points. Earlier, Delhi who were put in, were restricted to just 143/7 in 20 overs.

Treading on thin ice with just two wins from eight matches, Daredevils made three changes to their squad. Seamer Wayne Parnell, opener Murali Vijay and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem made way for leg-spinner Imran Tahir, batsman Mayank Agarwal and seamer Rahul Shukla.

Captain Kevin Pietersen walked out to open the innings with Quinton De Kock and it was clear that Daredevils were taking measures to try and do something different but Dale Steyn sent back the latter in the third over itself.

Their joy at the early breakthrough, however, was soon vaporised by an exploding Pietersen. The former England captain got blazing and Kumar was greeted with two boundaries. Amit Mishra, however, reined in his march in the seventh over. Pietersen danced down to charge at Mishra to clear the offside, only to mistime and send it straight to Dhawan at cover. It was a disappointing end to an exciting innings and Pietersen could only bang his bat on ground in regret.

It was also Mishra’s 100th IPL wicket and two overs later he added to his tally by accounting for Agarwal. Amidst the first rain interval spanning 73 minutes, Dinesh Karthik and LR Shukla raised 55 runs for the fourth wicket before the Daredevils’ crumbled against a good spell of bowling. Only 22 runs came in the last five overs for Daredevils, who also lost four wickets, to find themselves in familiar discomfort.

Score board

DELHI DAREDEVILS: Quinton de Kock c Rahul b Steyn 7, Kevin Pietersen c Dhawan b Mishra 35, Mayank Agarwal c Warner b Mishra 25, Dinesh Karthik c Steyn b Henriques 39, Laxmi Ratan Shukla     c Warner b Henriques 21, Jean Paul Duminy b Kumar 4, Kedar Jadhav c Pathan b Steyn 5, Rahul Shukla (not out) 2; Extras (LB-4, W-1) 5; Total (7 wkts; 20 overs) 143.
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-54, 3-73, 4-128, 5-132, 6-139, 7-143.
Bowling: Dale Steyn 4-0-20-2, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-23-1, Karn Sharma 3-0-29-0, Moises Henriques 3-0-26-2, Amit Mishra 3-0-23-2, Irfan Pathan 3-0-18-0.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (Target: 43 from five overs): Aaron Finch b Shukla 4, Shikhar Dhawan c Duminy b Kaul 4, David Warner (not out) 12, Naman Ojha (not out) 13, Extras (B-4, LB-2, W-4, NB-1) 11; Total (2 wkts; 4.2 overs) 44
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-25.
Bowling: Mohammed Shami 1-0-6-0, Siddharth Kaul 1-0-5-1, Imran Tahir 1-0-7-0, Rahul Shukla 1-0-13-1, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 0.2-0-7-0.