SRH v DD, as it happened: Pathan’s late blitz, Williamson’s cool head help Sunrisers win a thriller

Wrapping it up

Delhi Daredevils did well to put up a challenging total on a pitch that looked two-paced. They had a great start and after the first 10 overs, looked good to get past 170. But the Sunrisers bowlers, as they have often done in this tournament, pulled things back. Only because of Vijay Shankar’s boundaries off the last over by Bhuvneshwar, they managed to get past 160, which was a challenging total. Sunrisers began slow and struggled after the midway stage as well. But a 27-run over just before the Powerplay (bowled by Avesh Khan) and a late blitz by Pathan proved crucial in the end. And, once again, Williamson anchored his team, guiding them past the finish line.

Rashid Khan gets man of the match for his spell of two for 23 (he picked up the key wickets for Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw)

“Feels great to perform well and play 100 games [it’s his 100th T20 game]. Want to be fit and play more 100 games. I had two bad matches, but after that, coming back and performing, all I wanted to do was keeping the basics right. And I’ve been enjoying myself which is why I’ve been getting the man of the match awards. Hyderabad feels like playing in Afghanistan, the love and support they give me. It’s amazing. It gives me more motivation to do well. Feel happy to give them something to cheer. Don’t know anyone in Afghanistan who is not watching IPL. My family is also praying for me.

Williamson: No secret on why we’re doing well. We’ve adapted to a variety of surfaces. The new ball was vital, and both teams used it well. We came back well with the ball to keep them to a par score. They looked like they’d get some more runs, so it was nice to restrict them. But they certainly put us under pressure.

With the bat, we knew the middle overs were going to be tough, but wanted to build partnerships and create momentum. Yusuf was beautiful at the end. The Powerplay overs were important, and Halesy was important.

Yusuf is very experienced, and can hit the ball really well. Fantastic for him to finish the game. Still got many games left, and we want to still see signs of improvement. Not perfect, but want to keep at it.

Kane Williamson, once again, showed why he’s his team’s batting lynchpin. Hales and Dhawan got Sunrisers off to a good start. But following their dismissal, the innings slowed down. Delhi tried to strangle the Sunrisers with a few boundary-less overs. But Williamson was composed, he stayed there till the end, guiding Pathan to finish things off for the Sunrisers. Delhi’s play off hopes have now been crushed.

Shreyas Iyer: Very disappointing to be honest. At a certain stage we were in the contest. Couldn’t capitalise on the good start. The pitch, I thought, wouldn’t turn that much. I think it was the perfect decision to pick only one spinner on this pitch that was turning that much. In the end it was a good chase. We have been practicing hard on our fielding as well. We have to keep getting better at it. We didn’t give up till the end.

19.5 And, the Sunrisers finish it off! Williamson calmly works it towards the leg side to take Sunrisers past the line.

19.4 Single towards leg side. Williamson on strike. One more needed off two.

19.3 FOUR! Short ball followed by the full toss. Pathan top-edges it to the boundary past fine leg.

19.2 SIX! Horror of horrors! Dan Christian bowls a full toss on Pathan’s arc. He smashes it 96 meters straight past the bowler. Six needed off four.

19.1 Two scored off the first ball. Yusuf hits it straight back at Christian. The ball deflects off him. And Williamson and Yusuf manage to run two.

Alright then 14 needed off the last over. Dan Christian with the ball. Pressure.

After 19 overs, SRH: 136/3 (Williamson 30, Pathan 2): Yusuf Pathan comes to the party! 14 off the last over by Boult! Bludgeons a length ball by Boult over long on to start the proceedings. Survives a close LBW shout next. He, then, slashes a wide full toss past point for a four. Williamson and Pathan then finish the rest of the over with singles.

After 18 overs, SRH: 136/3 (Williamson 30, Pathan 2): Sunrisers need 28 off the last 12 balls. Brilliant over by Plunkett. Concedes just four and picks up a wicket.

WICKET! Pandey tries to take on Plunkett, slashes him in the air, trying to clear extra cover. But Prithvi Shaw takes a skier to dismiss him. After 17.1, SRH: 132/3

After 17 overs, SRH: 132/2 (Williamson 28, Pandey 21): Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey score seven off that over by Trent Boult without scoring a boundary. Boult’s got just one more left. Williamson and Pandey will try to take on the other bowlers.

After 16 overs, SRH: 125/2 (Williamson 25, Pandey 17): Avesh Khan gets an opportunity to redeem himself after the 27-run over. But Williamson spoils it with a superb six. He jumps, connects his slash perfectly, to send the wide bouncer soaring past the ropes. 39 required off 24 now. Sunrisers are looking good to win this one!

After 15 overs, SRH: 115/2 (Williamson 16, Pandey 16): Finally, Manish Pandey ends Sunrisers’ boundary drought. He takes on Christian’s last two balls: the first one, a full toss, he sent it straight; the next one, wide, was driven past point. This is the over Sunrisers were looking for. Pressure’s off them now.

After 14 overs, SRH: 102/2 (Williamson 12, Pandey 7): Liam Plunkett concedes just six. It’s been over three overs since Sunrisers have scored a boundary. Scoring runs is getting tougher and tougher on this wicket. Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey need to hasten the scoring rate. They have got two more overs from Trent Boult to face.

After 13 overs, SRH: 96/2 (Williamson 8, Pandey 5): That’s the end of Mishra’s spell. He picked up the two crucial wickets, giving away just 19. But what will Delhi do from here on? They have got no experienced spinners left to bowl. Wise decision by Williamson and Pandey to play out Mishra.

After 12 overs, SRH: 92/2 (Williamson 6, Pandey 3): Six off that over by Liam Plunkett. No boundaries. If Delhi can pick another wicket and keep conceding less than six an over, then, they can do to Sunrisers what Sunrisers have been doing to other teams during a chase.

After 11 overs, SRH: 86/2 (Williamson 4): WICKET! And, Mishra strikes again on the last ball of the over! It’s the big wicket of Dhawan. The southpaw tried to slog-sweep him off a straight, flighted ball that pitched on the middle of the pitch. Dhawan was probably looking for a boundary to finish the over. But not the best of shots.

After 10 overs, SRH: 82/1 (Dhawan 32, Williamson 2): Tidy over by Christian. Six scored off it. Sunrisers won’t mind that either. They can chase this without taking any major risks. The Daredevils should look to get more wickets to put Sunrisers under pressure. Else, Williamson and Dhawan will do it easily.

And, in walks the calm, suave man from New Zealand: Kane Williamson in the house. He will be key to this run chase.

After 9 overs, SRH: 76/1 (Dhawan 28): WICKET! “That’s a jaffa!” screams Michael Clarke in the commentary box as Amit Mishra bowls a beauty to dismiss Alex Hales. The ball pitches on the leg stump line at good length, goes past Hales’ defence and strikes the off stump. There haven’t been many better deliveries bowled in this IPL than this one. Also, timely strike by Mishra. The Sunrisers were going without any pressure after that 27-run over.

After 8 overs, SRH: 68/0 (Hales 43, Dhawan 22): Another quiet over. Dan Christian concedes just four. Both batsmen look set. But will the lack of boundaries in the last two overs force errors from the batsmen.

After 7 overs, SRH: 64/0 (Hales 41, Dhawan 20): Amit Mishra quietens the Sunrisers opening pair after they plundered 27 off the previous over. Just three runs conceded. But Sunrisers needn’t hurry now. They are comfortably above the required rate.

After 6 overs, SRH: 61/0 (Hales 40, Dhawan 18): And, tables have turned in this over. 27 RUNS OFF IT! Sunrisers, who have been lagging behind, are now well over the required rate. Four sixes scored off that over (three by Hales and a 92-meter monster-hit by Dhawan).

After 5 overs, SRH: 34/0 (Hales 21, Dhawan 11): Not a great over that by Liam Plunkett. He conceded a four to Hales off the second ball (where Hales just helped the ball on the leg side). He bowled another short one to complete the over, which was put away by Dhawan.

After 4 overs, SRH: 23/0 (Hales 15, Dhawan 6): After a horrendous run out, shock drop catch, Maxwell will breathe easy after conceding just four off that over. Sunrisers have started slowly but haven’t lost a wicket yet.

After 3 overs, SRH: 19/0 (Hales 13, Dhawan 4): Just eight runs conceded off that over by Trent Boult. No room given to the batsmen. He’s looked sharp tonight.

After 2 overs, SRH: 11/0 (Hales 10, Dhawan 1): Glenn Maxwell drops Alex Hales’ catch at deep square leg off Avesh Khan. You don’t see Maxwell dropping catches like that. He’s been having a terrible night. And, Hales scored two boundaries in that over (before the dropped catch). Will that miss prove too costly for the Daredevils?

After 1 over, SRH: 1/0 (Hales 1, Dhawan 0): Excellent first over by Trent Boult against his former team. Just a little hint of swing. Dhawan doesn’t look fluent. He’s on a lean patch. Needs a big knock to restore his confidence.

Alright then, the chase is on!

09:45 pm Williamson is key for Sunrisers. He’s made over 27% of his team’s total runs this season. If the Delhi bowling attack can get the rival skipper early, then it might make things difficult for the SRH batting unit.

And, Delhi finish at 163/5 (Christian7, Shankar 23) Good finish by Vijay Shankar. Delhi manage to score 17 runs off Bhuvneshwar’s last over (he doesn’t concede these many often). Vijay scores a boundary and a six and runs three off the last ball. 164 is a challenging score to chase on this wicket. SRH haven’t chased these many in this season.

After 19 overs, DD: 146/5 (Christian 6, Shankar 7) Another good over by the Sunrisers. Sid Kaul gives away just seven runs. It’s been 18 balls since Delhi have scored a boundary.

After 18 overs, DD: 139/5 (Christian 4, Shankar 2) Good, tight over that by Shakib. Just four runs off it. Six runs and two wickets in the last 12 balls for the Sunrisers. They are back in the game. Can they still get to 160?

WICKET! Two wickets for Sunrisers in that Rashid Khan over. Sightly low kept delivery misses Pant’s attempted pull and strikes him on the pad straight. He reviews it, but the ball is shown clipping the top of middle stump. Pant has to depart. After 16.5 overs, 134/5.

WICKET! Naman Ojha is run out after a mix up with Rishabh Pant. Pant was at the non-strikers end. Ojha wanted to be off strike. Pant, after starting to run, stops, and stumbles and abruptly cancels the run. Ojha was run out at the striker’s end. After 16.1 overs, 133/4

After 16 overs, DD: 133/3 (Pant 18, Ojha 1) Sid Kaul gives away just eight in that over. Pant scores a boundary off the last ball.

WICKET! The Delhi skipper falls to Sid Kaul after flicking a full delivery straight to Dhawan at deep midwicket. After 15.1 overs, 125/3.

After 15 overs, DD: 125/2 (Iyer 44, Pant 13) Could’ve been another boundary-less over had Shikhar Dhawan didn’t fumble at long off in the penultimate delivery bowled by Sandeep Sharma. Instead, the ball – driven straight off a full toss by Iyer – deflects off Dhawan’s boots and goes to the boundary.

After 14 overs, DD: 118/2 (Iyer 38, Pant 12) Eight runs scored off the over by Bhuvneshwar. No boundaries. Delhi still have plenty of wickets left. But it’s at the death that Sunrisers are very effective. But a total of 160-170 will be difficult on this wicket for the Sunrisers.

Bhuvi’s back to bowl his third over of the night.

After 13 overs, DD: 110/2 (Iyer 36, Pant 6) Saha misses a tough catch (a faint edge resulting from an attempted jab) of Shreyas Iyer off Rashid’s bowling. Next ball, the Delhi skipper lofted Rashid over extra cover

After 12 overs, DD: 101/2 (Iyer 29, Pant 4) Superb over by Kaul. Just three runs conceded. Things have been a little slow for Delhi since the dismissal (in the last over) of Shaw.

After 11 overs, DD: 98/2 (Iyer 28, Pant 2) Just three runs scored and the big wicket of Prithvi Shaw, who looked like he’d score his maiden IPL hundred. What an over by Rashid Khan.

WICKET! And, Rashid Khan gets what his skipper wanted him to: the wicket of Prithvi Shaw. He top-edges looking to slog-sweep a ball that’s pitched outside off. The third man takes a comfortable catch. After 10.1 overs, DD: 95/2.

After 10 overs, DD: 95/1 (Shaw 65, Iyer 27) Shaw goes past his highest IPL score. Sandeep Sharma bowls a tight over. The Daredevils are headed for a strong finish though.

After 9 overs, DD: 89/1 (Shaw 61, Iyer 25) How is this team struggling to survive in the tournament? you’d think seeing the way Delhi Daredevils have been batting so far in this game. Such fluency. They score 14 of Shakib’s over. It included a six over long on and a four towards short third man region.

After 8 overs, DD: 75/1 (Shaw 58, Iyer 14) Knuckle ball, wrong ‘un, googly... nothing seems to trouble Prithvi Shaw tonight. He’s been reading the deliveries so well. Picks a rare, short one from Rashid and sends him past deep square leg.

Okay, Rashid Khan into the attack. Clutch situation.

After 7 overs, DD: 66/1 (Shaw 51, Iyer 12) Tight over that by Shakib. No boundaries. Prithvi Shaw has got to his half-century. A good start this by Delhi Daredevils. Can they keep this going and put up a big total?

After 6 overs, DD: 60 (Shaw 48, Iyer 9) Sid Kaul into the attack and Prithvi Shaw takes him apart.

5.3: Knuckle ball, easily read, and deposited over long off for a SIX.

5.4: Pull over mid-wicket for FOUR.

5.5: A fine flick between third-man and the keeper. FOUR.

5.6: Superb punch off the backfooot. Three fours in a row. And, Shaw is two runs away from a fifty.

This is the highest runs scored in a Powerplay against Sunrisers this season.

After 5 overs, DD: 40 (Shaw 29, Iyer 8) Shreyas Iyer gets going with a straight boundary on the penultimate delivery of Bhuvneshwar. He picked up Bhuvi’s knuckle ball really well.

After 4 overs, DD: 34 (Shaw 28, Iyer 3) Shaw’s looking in good touch here. Nine runs scored off that Sandeep Sharma over. The last ball, Shaw pulls it for a four behind third man.

After 3 overs, DD: 25/1 (Shaw 21, Iyer 1) Spin introduced by Williamson. But Shaw and his skipper, Shreyas Iyer, have no trouble contending with him. Shaw hits his second six off the night as well.

After 2 overs, DD: 15/1 (Shaw 18, Iyer 0) Apart from the Maxwell run out, that Sandeep Sharma over also had a superb six (over long on) by young Prithvi Shaw.

WICKET! Oh dear, oh dear. The ball hit straight by Prithvi Shaw has deflected off Sandeep Sharma’s hands and hits the non-strikers’ stumps. And, Glenn Maxwell’s out of the crease! Fortune doesn’t favour him tonight. But the Sunrisers will take this freebie. After 1.4 overs, DD: 9/1.

After 1 over, DD: 2/0 (Shaw 1, Maxwell 1) A tight first over. Well, what else does one expect from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bread and butter for him. Shaw and Maxwell aren’t in any hurry. They’d like to get their eyes in before going after the bowling (if that’s possible against this attack).

08:00 pm Bhuvneshwar Kumar runs in and bowls the first ball and Prithvi Shaw defends nicely. This contest will be fun to watch.

07:59 pm Oh, surprise! Glenn Maxwell’s walking out to bat for Delhi Daredevils. A make-or-break match for the Aussie. He hasn’t been among the runs in this season. Can he play a memorable knock tonight?

07:50 pm By the way, the average score batting first in day-night games at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium last season was 172. That par score has come down to 134 this season.

Playing XISunr

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Alex Hales, Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson (C), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (W), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma

Delhi Daredevils: Prithvi Shaw, Naman Ojha, Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant (W), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Daniel Christian, Liam Plunkett, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult

07:41 pm Shreyas Iyer wins the toss and they have decided to bat against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Good decision. Sunrisers have been masters of defending totals this season. And, with the return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, their bowling attack has been bolstered.

7:00 pm Hi folks! How’s your Saturday been so far? Well, the next few hours are gonna be exciting for Delhi Daredevils are taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad in what’s a must-win contest for the former. An early stumble in the tournament means that the Daredevils are trying hard, under new skipper Shreyas Iyer, to catch up and somehow sneak into the playoffs. A win tonight would keep their hopes alive. But another defeat will mean that the Delhi side won’t be part of the play-offs for the seventh straight year. Here’s a quick preview of tonight’s game.