A familiar story unfolded at Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday evening. The Hyderabad batting unit failed to spark, while Delhi produced a disciplined performance. Rishabh Pant’s men eased to an eight-wicket win and climbed to the top of the points table. Meanwhile, a hapless Hyderabad has now lost seven of their eight fixtures this season.
South African pace duo Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje and left-arm spinner Axar Patel grabbed seven wickets between them. Shreyas Iyer, playing his first competitive match since March 2021, made an unbeaten 47 and stitched together half-century stands with Shikhar Dhawan and Pant. All-round efforts from Rashid Khan and Abdul Samad’s 28 were the only positives for Hyderabad.
Hyderabad’s batting woes
Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson won the toss and put themselves to bat first. The fans would have been excited to see their star batsman David Warner at the crease. However, the joy was short-lived. Warner tried to work the ball to the square leg, but it took a leading edge and gave an easy catch to Axar. It was Nortje’s first wicket in the 2021 season
The 2016 champions lost Wriddhiman Saha, too, in the powerplay. The wicketkeeper-batsman, who played a few attacking shots, departed for 18. Williamson and Manish Pandey tried to lead the recovery but couldn’t up the scoring rate. Axar broke the 31-run stand after Williamson holed out to Hetmyer at long off. Pandey followed his captain immediately, giving a return catch to Rabada. Hyderabad was four down and just 61 on the board.
Valiant efforts
Nortje returned for his second spell and sent Kedar Jadhav back to the pavilion. He trapped the 36-year-old in front of the stumps and finished with figures of 2/12. Hyderabad plunged further when Jason Holder made his way back to the dressing room for just 10. It looked like the South Indian outfit could be folded before the regulation 20 overs.
Samad and Rashid offered some respite for Hyderabad fans. The duo played their shots and added some valuable runs to the total. Samad top-scored for the franchise with a 21-ball 28, while the Afghanistan spinner made 22. They managed to score 23 runs from the last two overs.
No stopping Delhi
The Delhi openers began the run chase in their typical fashion. Dhawan struck two fours off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first over. At the other end, Shaw went after Khaleel Ahmed. He hit two boundaries, but the pacer dismissed the Mumbai-born batsman for 11. Iyer came in to bat at No 3.
Delhi managed to add 39 runs in the powerplay. Iyer slowly found his groove and took Rashid to the cleaners. Dhawan scored back-to-back boundaries off Sandeep Sharma. The left-handed batsman departed for a well-made 42 after Samad took a comfortable catch at deep square leg.
New man Pant batted watchfully and let Iyer play the attacking shots. The former Delhi captain, who brought up 4000 runs in T20 cricket, cracked successive fours in the 14th over. Hyderabad’s hopes of a win slowly faded. Pant hammered Bhuvneshwar for a six and made 16 runs off Khaleel’s last over. Iyer wrapped up the match with a six as Delhi aced another chase in the Indian T20 League 2021.
New leg, old Hyderabad
The over-reliance on Warner and a struggling middle-order continue to trouble the men in orange. Williamson couldn’t hold the innings together despite a decent third-wicket stand with Pandey. Jadhav and seamer Sandeep couldn’t make their opportunities count. The absence of Vijay Shankar and T Natarajan, too, made things difficult for them.
Nortje is back
Ricky Ponting, the Delhi head coach, couldn’t have asked for more from Nortje. The 27-year-old made a brilliant comeback after missing out in the first leg. He clipped Hyderabad’s wings with the wicket of Warner in just the third ball of the match. The second spell saw him remove Jadhav and concede only 12 runs in four overs.
Hyderabad 134/9 in 20 overs (A Samad 28, R Khan 22;K Rabada 3/37, A Nortje 2/12, A Patel 2/21)
Delhi 139/2 in 17.5 overs (M S Iyer 47*, S Dhawan 42, R Pant 35*; R Khan 1/26. K Ahmed 1/33)
Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
Read All Articles >
