Speedster Kagiso Rabada led a clinical bowling display with a four-wicket haul as Delhi Capitals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 39 runs under dramatic conditions in the IPL match on Sunday.
Pacer Keemo Paul (3/17) ran through the Sunrisers top-order before his pace colleagues Rabada (4/22) and Chris Morris (3/22) triggered mayhem in the middle and lower order as the home side suffered a batting collapse after 15 overs while chasing 157 for a win.
ALSO READ: IPL 2019: Raina, Tahir shine as CSK beats KKR by five wickets
The Sunrisers were 101 for 3 in 15.2 overs when Ricky Bhui fell to Paul but after that they lost seven wickets for the addition of just 15 runs. Morris took three wickets in the space of five balls in the 18th over as the stunned home crowd watched their side’s batsmen capitulating without much fight as the innings folded at 116 in 18.5 overs.
David Warner, who top-scored with a 47-ball 51, was out in the 17th over off Rabada to trigger a procession of Sunrisers batsmen towards the dressing room. Rabada and Morris took all these six wickets as Sunrisers surrenderd tamely.
The Sunrisers’ openers Warner and Jonny Bairstow (41) made a watchful start as they looked for accumulating runs without taking risks. Warner was uncharacteristically slow and it was left to Bairstow to take the chances.
Bairstow hit Ishant Sharma a couple of fours and a six off Morris but the home side could only score 40 for no loss at the end of first powerplay overs.
The opening duo reached the 50-run mark at the end of the eighth over and they began to look for big shots. The Sunrisers, however lost Bairstow at an inopportune juncture with Paul getting rid of him in the 10th over.
Rabada got rid of Vijay Shankar (1) in the next delivery and with it the game was as good as over in favour of Delhi Capitals. It was then the turn Morris to take three wickets in the 18th over before Rabada ended the Sunrisers run chase with two wickets in consecutive deliveries.
Earlier, young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed grabbed three key wickets in an impressive spell to help Sunrisers restrict Delhi Capitals to 155 for 7 after the visitors were invited to bat.
The 21-year-old bowler took the wickets of openers Prithvi Shaw (4) and Shikhar Dhawan (7) as well as that of dangerous Rishabh Pant (23) while conceding 30 runs from his four overs.
For Delhi, captian Shreyas Iyer top-scored with a 40-ball 45 and his 56-run partnership with Pant for the fourth wicket took them a challenging total after a wobbly start. Colin Munro was the other notable contributor with a 24-ball 40.
In his next over, Ahmed got rid of Dhawan who miscued a bounceer off the bowler with Bhuvneshwar Kumar taking the catch at fine leg.