Five days ago, Delhi Capitals returned from Uppal by defending a middling total for their fifth win in a row over Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL. Fast forward to Saturday, SRH were in DC’s home at the Arun Jaitely Stadium and they exacted their revenge with a 9-run win. Batting first, SRH posted a big 197/6 in 20 overs with Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen hitting blistering fifties.
Mitchell Marsh had dented SRH with a four-fer but attacking innings from Abhishek and Klaasen ensured the the visitors finished with a challenging total. DC lost David Warner for a duck before Mitchell Marsh and Phil Salt led an excellent turnaround for the hosts with a century stand. Both struck quickfire half-centuries. And then SRH spinners took over with quick strikes allowing Hyderabad to bounce back. After the dismissals of Marsh and Salt, DC chase went off track and they eventually finished with 188/6 in 20 overs.
Abhishek Sharma and Henrich Klaasen struck blistering fifties to propel SRH to a big 197/6 in 20 overs against DC. This is the highest total so far at this venue this season. Abhishek made 67 while Klaasen remained unbeaten on 53.
Klaasen and Abdul Samad provided the late push with a quickfire 53-run stand for the sixth wicket for SRH. Abhishek’s dream hitting finally ended when he holed out on 67 off giving Axar Patel his first wicket of the match.
Earlier, Mitchell Marsh landed two big blows in an over to get rid of Aiden Markram and Harry Brook to dent SRH innings.
Abhishek brought up his half-century with a six off Kuldeep Yadav, taking just 25 deliveries to the milestone.
SRH received an early jolt when Ishant Sharma had opener Mayank Agarwal caught behind for just five. However, Abhishek made sure there was no break in scoring-rate as he kept finding boundaries.
SRH skipper Aiden Markram opted to field first at the Arun Jaitely Stadium. He doesn’t expect the dew to have an impact and thinks the wicket looks a bit dry. SRH have made two changes giving debut to Akeal Hosein and bringing back Abdul Samad. DC have dropped Aman Khan for Priyam Garg.
Bottom dwellers Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad will lock horns once again for the second time this week in IPL 2023. They met on Monday in Hyderabad when DC recorded their second win on the trot, successfully defending a middling 144 against SRH to get some momentum going.
Despite the two victories, DC remain rooted to the bottom and tonight’s a chance for the David Warner-led franchise to move ahead a rung. Same goes for SRH but they will want to improve their net run-rate for that to happen which is the only factor that separates them from DC right now.
Both the teams have been struggling with their batting department despite. For DC, Warner has been the top-scorer and the only consistent batter who has been starved of support from other top order batters. Axar Patel has been bailing them out consistently.
SRH showed spark when Harry Brook announced his arrival by hitting the first century of the season but barring that particular innings, he’s been struggling as well. SRH have been hit by a big injury blow though having lost allrounder Washington Sundar to injury for the remainder of the season.
