It was another match that went to the wire. The spectators at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium in Vishakhapatnam were on their feet, when Sunrisers Hyderabad needed 7 runs from the last two balls of Nathan Coulter-Nile. SRH had Karn Sharma and Praveen Kumar out in the middle to bring them the winning runs, when 7 batsmen had already gone back. On the fifth ball Karn Sharma went for a mighty heave that took a huge slice from his bat. Coulter-Nile’s pace did the trick as the edge flew hard and high. It was sailing over the ropes behind the deep point fielder. Just when everyone thought that scores were level, Mayank Agarwal jumped his full height, got his hands to the ball and managed to slap the ball inside the field. That effort resulted in SRH taking only 2 runs. Now victory could have come if the last ball was hit for six. That didn’t happen as Karn Sharma perished off the last ball and DD ran away with a 4-run victory. Earlier, Delhi captain JP Duminy came up with a brilliant all-round performance in first scoring a 41-ball 54 and then taking 4 wickets, when Hyderabad came on to chase. He first removed Shikhar Dhawan and then David Warner in the same over and then came later to get rid of the dangerous Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan also in the same over. Duminy’s pyrotechnics became the cornerstone of Delhi Daredevils’ second win of IPL’s 2015 season.
Delhi won the toss and decided to bat first. The Vishakhapatnam pitch was tricky and it didn’t offer any easy advantage to the batsmen. The uneven bounce bothered the batsmen as Mayank Agarwal began by edging Bhuvneshwar Kumar to Shikhar Dhawan in the slips and getting out in the third over. The other opener, Shreyas Iyer was unperturbed and he punched DD bowlers with disdain. Even Dale Steyn was not spared. The South African was playing his first match of this IPL season but he couldn’t make any impact on Iyer and Duminy, who had stepped out after Agarwal’s departure. Steyn was unlucky because there were many edges that came from the bats of DD batsmen that evaded the fielders narrowly. The first 5 overs of the innings produced only 28 runs but Iyer managed to take 12 off the 6th by Praveen Kumar to ease DD’s troubles. As Duminy sealed one end, Iyer went on a rampage. He clouted three sixes off Karn Sharma’s eight balls that came to him. Iyer went on to complete his first IPL half-century, in 32 balls and he was the chief architect of the intensive batting that produced 52 runs in the next five overs. However, Iyer was foxed by a slower delivery from Praveen Kumar after scoring a 40-ball 60 that included 3 fours and 5 sixes. From here onwards, Duminy assumed control and despite losing Yuvraj Singh early, the South African was relentless against Bopara and other bowlers. He reached his 50 in 39 balls, when he sent a ball from Dale Steyn soaring over long-on for a mighty six. After completing a 41-ball 54, Duminy was bowled by Steyn in trying a lap sweep but Delhi reached 167 at the end with small cameos from Angelo Mathews and Kedar Jadhav.
On the face, a chase of 168 for SRH was not so difficult. But the pitch was a spoilsport as the ball didn’t come to the bat as expected. After a sound start that produced 50 for the first wicket in six overs, SRH’s big-hitting openers succumbed to Duminy in the 7th over. The Delhi captain first bowled Shikhar Dhawan by a slider and off the third ball, Warner played a tad early and spooned a catch to Duminy. Fall of two quick wickets brought a slowdown in the rate of scoring. Only Bopara and Lokesh Rahul held promise by some brisk scoring in middle overs. In his second spell, however, Duminy accounted for two more wickets in a single over. He first had Ravi Bopara holing out to long-off and two ball later, bowled Eoin Morgan. SRH were in trouble now but they managed to come close from late blows from Karn Sharma and Ashish Reddy. In the last over, Mayank Agarwal’s remarkable presence of mind shut the doors on SRH, when they needed 7 off the two balls. He saved a possible six by Karn Sharma, when he leapt high and put the ball in play and since Karn Sharma was bowled off the last ball, Delhi scored a 4-run victory, their second of the 2015 IPL season.
