Synopsis: Blazing fifties from Travis Head and Shahbaz Ahmed, a blistering cameo from Abhishek Sharma and T Natarajan’s four-wicket haul blow Delhi Capitals away on a placid surface on which Kuldeep Yadav was among the wickets.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma piled on 125 runs in the Powerplay, the most in the history of the format, on a six-lane expressway of a surface, at a run rate of nearly 21 runs an over. The spectators at Arun Jaitley Stadium must be wondering whether they were watching a live match or a highlight package. The boundary count boggles the mind – in the Powerplay, Head and Sharma smoked 13 fours and 11 sixes. That means only 12 balls out of the first 36 didn’t reach the boundary.
On the eve of the match, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting stressed that they want to make Kotla their fortress, a tagline nicely suited to the venue.
Travis Head doing Travis Head things already 🔥
What a start this for @SunRisers 🧡
Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱#TATAIPL | #DCvSRH pic.twitter.com/THLOchmfT2
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 20, 2024
However, it was Head who walked the talk. A day prior to the match, he said that how one batted in the first innings after losing the toss was important. The Aussie left-hander also revealed Sunrisers’ mantra: “Maximise the Powerplay.”
He and his opening partner did exactly the same. Another facet of the Sunrisers’ game was that they kept on hitting boundaries despite losing wickets in the middle overs. Then Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed put on 67 runs in just 43 balls to make sure they crossed the 250-run mark again. Reddy scored a fluent 37, while Shahbaz provided the perfect flourish with his maiden IPL fifty, taking Sunrisers to 266. The all-rounder remained unbeaten on 59 off 29 balls.
Stoic fight but bizarre decision-making
Facing such a monstrous total, Delhi did not surrender meekly. They produced a fight and piled the pressure on Sunrisers bowlers. Especially Jake Fraser-McGurk, who is undoubtedly the best upcoming talent from Australia. Picking length early, he smoked seven sixes.
Pat Cummins celebrates the dismissal of Jake Fraser-McGurk against Delhi Capitals on Saturday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
But it was surprising to see Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant walking out at No.6. If this was late enough, Lalit Yadav was promoted ahead of Axar Patel. Pant remained unbeaten on a 34-ball 44 as Delhi Capitals were bundled out for 199. T Natarajan (4/19) was the pick of the bowler for the visitors.
Head and Sharma — The show-stoppers
At the innings break, Abhishek told the broadcasters they were targeting a bigger score in the Powerplay after assessing the conditions. These followed similar words from his opening partner during the select media interaction when he said they are able to score at such a rate in the Powerplay because they adapt quickly.
Head launched the second ball of the innings for a six and followed it with two sumptuous fours. As many as 19 runs came from Khaleel Ahmed’s first over. Pant brought on Lalit Yadav in the second over, and the spinner was greeted with consecutive sixes over cow corner.
Sunrisers’ fifty was up in 2.4 overs and two balls later Head completed his half-century off 16 balls with the help of seven fours and four sixes, taking 22 runs of Anrich Nortje’s first over. Abhishek, who was playing second fiddle so far, joined the party by hitting two sixes of Yadav’s bowling. He, however, saved his best for Kuldeep Yadav and danced down the track on three occasions and collected the maximum on each occasion.
What a turnaround this from @DelhiCapitals 👏👏
Kuldeep Yadav gets the dangerous Travis Head while Axar Patel gets Heinrich Klaasen 👌👌
Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱 #TATAIPL | #DCvSRH pic.twitter.com/mmJIBB2uEq
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 20, 2024
Kuldeep’s magic
However, Kuldeep again showed why he should be India’s leading spinner at the T20 World Cup. On a day when bowlers went to the cleaners, the left-arm wrist-spinner after conceding 20 in the first over, picked up four wickets to jolt the Sunrisers’ innings in the middle overs. He dismissed Abhishek, Head and Aiden Markram to slow them down for a while. Axar Patel took a blinder to send back Abhishek, who hammered 46 runs in 12 balls. Head was two big shots away from reaching the three-figure mark for the second successive game, before departing for 89 while trying to clear long-on. Markram fell cheaply. The marauder Heinrich Klaasen launched two sixes during his stay but it was not his day as Axar cleaned him up.
It was a high-quality spell from Kuldeep in a run fest. He bowled the most dot balls in the innings (8), and despite conceding the most number of sixes (7) in the match, ended up taking the most number of wickets (4 /55).
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 266/7 in 20 overs (Head 89, Shahbaz 59 not out, Abhishek Sharma 46; Kuldeep Yadav 4/55) beat Delhi Capitals 199 all out in 19.1 overs (Jake Fraser-McGurk 65, Rishabh Pant 44, Abishek Porel 42; T Natarajan 4/19, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2/17) by 67 runs
