Pant Smashes 21-ball 49 as DC Beat SRH in Thrilling Eliminator
Delhi Capitals won by 5 wickets, knocking Sunrisers Hyderabad out of the 12th edition of Indian Premier League.
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- Delhi Capitals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by two wickets in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League.
- Delhi will next play Chennai Super Kings in the second Qualifier for a spot in the final.
- SRH: 162/8 (Martin Guptill 36 off 19 balls, Keemo Paul 3/34)
- DC: 165/8 in 19.5 overs (Rishabh Pant 49 off 21 balls, Prithvi Shaw 56 off 38 balls)
It was a do-or-die match of the Indian Premier League, and if that wasn’t enough pressure, the Eliminator between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday, 8 May, ended up being a complete thriller.
After restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to 162/8, Delhi got off to a good start in their chase with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw sharing a 66-run stand.
Dhawan fell for 17 courtesy a smart stumping by Wriddhiman Saha, but young Shaw went onto score 38-ball 56.
Delhi however lost momentum at start of the back-10 with Khaleel's extra pace and bounce accounting for Prithvi and skipper Shreyas Iyer (8). Prithvi's innings had six fours and two sixes.
It was Rashid Khan (2/15 in 4 overs), who them removed Colun Munro (14) and Axar Patel (0) to peg back Delhi at 111 for 5.
Delhi Capitals’ Super Pant
Pant, who teed off with a six off Mohammed Nabi, hit him for a second six as 42 runs were required off the last four overs when Pant changed the match.
Needing 34 from three overs, Pant showed brilliant game awareness to target Sunrisers' weakest link Basil Thampi, smashing him for 21 runs in the 18th over as he brought the game on even keel.
A six off Bhuvneshwar Kumar brought the equation down to five runs before Pant in his bid to finish the game was holed out for 49 (21 balls) with five required from seven balls.
Despite the controversial run-out of Amit Mishra in the final over, West Indies' Paul finished it off the penultimate ball of the innings with a boundary off Khaleel Ahmed
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Innings
Earlier, Delhi Capitals bowlers pulled the plug in the middle overs, restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to a par score of 162 for 8 on a good batting surface after opting to field.
Keemo Paul (3/32 in 4 overs) was ably supported by Amit Mishra (1/16 in 4 overs), Ishant Sharma (2/34 in 4 overs) and Axar Patel (0/30 in 4 overs) as the quartet bowled 40 dot balls between them.
Ishant got rid of Wriddhiman Saha (8), who offered a simple catch to Shreyas Iyer at mid-off.
Martin Guptill (36, 19 balls) hit three sixes including two off his countrymate Trent Boult to set the pace in the Powerplay overs which yielded 54 runs.
Credit to Delhi bowlers as the next 14 overs produced only 108 runs.
As Guptill was in attacking mood, it gave the normally flamboyant Manish Pandey (30, 36 balls) to play around before the spinners came in operation.
Axar and Mishra choked the run-flow and Guptill was accounted for trying to slog sweep the leg-spinner. His innings had four sixes apart from a boundary.
Sunrisers suddenly lost momentum in those middle overs as Pandey and Kane Williamson (27 off 26 balls) added only 34 runs in seven overs before he Karnataka batsman was dismissed by a Keemo Paul slower delivery. Pandey was holed out by Sherfane Rutherford at long-on boundary making it 90 for 3 for Sunrisers.
Ishant coming in his second spell bowled the perfect inswinging yorker to send back Williamson.
Vijay Shankar (25 off 11 balls) and Mohammed Nabi (20 off 13 balls) added 36 runs in 2.4 overs to beef up the total but Paul kept things tight in the end.