IPL 2021: Delhi Capitals thrash Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets, move to the top of the points table

Delhi Capitals (DC) pulled off a comprehensive win against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of eight wickets, in the IPL 2021 league encounter between the teams on Wednesday. This triumph has propelled the Delhi-based franchise to the top of the points table, with Rishabh Pant’s captaincy continuing to work wonders for a team slammed as ‘perennial underachievers’. SRH succumbed to their seventh defeat in their opening eight matches of the IPL 2021 season, joining the list of teams to have recorded this debacle. While many refused to rule out a choke by DC similar to that witnessed in the contest between PBKS and RR last night, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant showcased their maturity to ensure a tidy win.

Iyer and Pant scored an unbeaten 47 and 35 respectively after Shikhar Dhawan had accumulated 42 runs to deliver a fine start to the chase of 135 runs. While Prithvi Shaw departed for just 11, the SRH bowlers could never really deliver the dismissals at the same level when taking on the other batsmen.

Clinical performance by DC bowlers to restrict SRH to 134

Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje combined to help DC restrict SRH to a score of 134/9. Rabada and Nortje accounted for three and two wickets respectively, in the clash which marked the maiden game of both teams in the second half of IPL 2021. The former accounted for the dismissals of Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey and Abdul Samad. Nortje sent David Warner and Kedar Jadhav back to the pavilion, delivering a splendid performance with just 12 runs conceded.

“It was good, nice to be out here in Dubai. Hard lengths were working for us and nice to stick to that plan. Personally I was feeling very good, bit of different conditions there(in Sri Lanka) played a couple of games and it didn’t feel too bad. I don’t try to think about it (pace), just try and keep it simple,” said Nortje as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“Done a lot of work over the years and the key is to quickly identify what’s working for me on the day, it’s been the major change over the last few years. The new ball might be a little different at night, its not the easiest of wickets if you bowl good lengths, just try and take advantage of the bad balls. The key thing is to not go chasing for boundaries,” he added.

“I’m enjoying the way I’m timing the ball”

Dhawan is now the proud owner of the orange cap, following his fine knock.

“I’m enjoying wearing the cap, I’m enjoying the way I’m timing the ball. Not very true, this surface, it stopped a bit, and we had to plan the game according to the wicket. So it was good to go out there and secure a win. I consciously made an effort to increase the tempo and strike-rate, because I wanted to be an impacful player for my side. It was just about the execution. Rabada and Nortje are our gun bowlers. Rabada always gets us the wicket. Nortje has great pace and his game has improved too, so they are troubling the batsmen. Absolutely enjoying being at the top of the table,” he stated.

Williamson was left to rue his team’s inability to register a proper partnership.

“We didn’t start well, didn’t register a decent partnership but never got any momentum, some good scores in the back-end, but pretty much 25-30 runs short. We did bowl well, we have defended modest scores in the past, but it wasn’t to be today which was a bit of a shame. It’s been a difficult campaign so far, but we need to enjoy our cricket and don’t put ourselves under pressure – they were excellent, they are both quality internationals, two of the best fast bowlers going around at the moment and they put us under pressure. They got us into hard positions, perhaps if we hadn’t lost early wickets, we could have done differently, but Delhi were outstanding and played some smart cricket. We need to concentrate on the way we play and try to improve,” concluded the cricketer.