CHENNAI: Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in a Super-Over thriller in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
Prithvi Shaw and Kane Williamson top-scored for their respective sides but the contest turned out to be a nail-biter and it was DC, who eventually emerged victorious in a close contest.
Chasing a target of 160, SRH openers — David Warner and Jonny Bairstow — got off to a watchful start, scoring 10 in the first two overs. Bairstow got going and smacked a four and six each off Marcus Stoinis and then clubbed Ashwin for a maximum. However, SRH lost their skipper after he was run-out at the striker’s end in the fourth over.
Bairstow continued to take on the DC spinners and added a six and a four to his count, scoring 11 runs off the 5th over, bowled by Axar Patel.
Williamson, who had joined Bairstow in the middle after Warner’s dismissal, was up and away with two fours as well. Bairstow attacked Avesh Khan’s pace and launched it out of the ground but was dismissed on the very next ball after hitting the ball straight to Dhawan at mid-on and SRH ended the powerplay with a total of 56/2.
Virat Singh joined Williamson as SRH added only 8 runs in the next two overs, courtesy some tight bowling from DC spinners — Ashwin and Mishra.
Williamson eased off some pressure and scored consecutive fours off Mishra, with required run-rate rising up. The right-hander then hit Ashwin for a four with a well-executed reverse-sweep but Virat Singh was struggling on the other end, with SRH 80/2 at the 10-over mark.
Virat Singh’s time at the crease was put to end after Avesh scalped his second wicket of the innings, thanks to a wonderful catch by Stoinis at mid-wicket. Kedar Jadhav and Williamson added two more fours to the boundary count but Mishra cleverly deceived Jadhav with flight and scalped a timely wicket for DC.
The pressure was building on SRH as they required 43 off the final four overs and Axar struck twice in consecutive deliveries. Both — Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan — were trapped in front in the 17th over.
Vijay Shankar and the well-settled Williamson added 11 runs off Mishra’s over, with SRH requiring 28 runs off the final two.
Avesh Khan bowled the penultimate over and castled Shankar’s stumps to pick his third wicket before J Suchith smashed a six and four off the final two balls of the over.
With 16 runs required off the final over, Suchith came to the rescue for SRH and hit Rabada for a four and a six in a thrilling finish to the game. With 2 required off the final delivery, the match was tied and went to a Super Over.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 159/4 (Prithvi Shaw 53, Rishabh Pant 37; Siddarth Kaul 2/31) tied Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/7 (Kane Williamson 66 not out, Jonny Bairstow 38; Avesh Khan 3/34)
Super Over: DC 8/0 bt SRH 7/0
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