Mitchell Marsh’s all-round performance (4-27 and 63 off 39) went in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Delhi Capitals by nine runs in Match No. 40 of IPL 2023 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Saturday. With this win, Delhi Capitals return to winning ways after a three-match losing streak in the ongoing season.
Brilliant attacking fifties by Abhishek Sharma (67 off 36) and Heinrich Klaasen (53 off 27) propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to 197/6 against Delhi Capitals despite Mitchell Marsh’s four-fer (4-27).
Apart from Abhishek and Klaasen, most of the SRH batters struggled to get going as the team lost wickets at regular intervals. On the other hand, barring Marsh, who bowled a maiden and bagged four wickets, none of the DC bowlers made a mark.
In reply, the likes of Marsh and Phil Salt (59 off 35) smashed the fifties and lower down the order, Axar Patel (29 off 14) also tried his best but it was not enough as Delhi suffered their sixth defeat of the season to lie at the bottom of the table. On the other hand, it was the third win for SRH in eight matches as they are at the eighth spot in the points table.
Chasing a big total, Delhi Capitals lost the wicket of skipper David Warner in the very first over of the innings bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a two-ball duck. Despite Warner’s wickets, the likes of Phil Salt and Mitchell Marsh decided to counter-attack. Both Salt and Marsh looked in good touch and dealt in boundaries and sixes to take Delhi Capitals to 57 runs in the first six overs.
Umran Malik came to bowl the 7th over and he was taken to the cleaners by Delhi batters with their pacer conceding 22 runs. Even Abhishek Sharma was not spared and 12 runs were scored in his over.
Though leg-spinner Mayank Markande bowled with discipline and both Salt and Marsh played him carefully, they kept the scoreboard ticking to make a century-stand and propelled Delhi Capitals to 101/1 at the halfway mark. During the process, Salt reached his maiden IPL half-century as well.
Soon after Mash hit Natarajan to score his fifty in 28 balls as Delhi were cruising towards the total. But as has been the case during the season, it was again Markande, who brought SRH back in the game by removing the dangerous Salt.
His spin partners Abhishek and Akeal then got rid of Manish Pandey (1) and big fish Marsh in quick succession. Youngsters Priyam Garg (12) and Sarfaraz Khan (9) also failed to grab the opportunity as Delhi were left struggling to 148-6 after 16.5 overs.
With 49 needed off 18 balls, Delhi had hopes from all-rounder Axar Patel and Ripal Patel and both did well to collect 14 runs from Bhuvneshwar to bring down the equation to 35 runs off 12 balls. But Natarajan bowled an excellent over and gave away just nine runs.
Delhi Capitals needed 26 needed off the last over to win and seasoned pacer Bhuvneshwar gave just 16 runs, despite Axar hitting him for a six and four, to ensure a nine-run victory for SRH.
Earlier, SRH won the toss, opted to bat first and were off to a decent start courtesy of opener Abhishek Sharma’s attacking approach. They scored 62/2 after the end of the first six overs — their second-highest powerplay score this season.
While other batters struggled to get going in the Power-play, Abhishek looked in fine touch and gave Delhi bowlers equal treatment, hitting them for some sublime boundaries. The likes of Mayank Agarwal (5) and Rahul Tripathi (10) disappointed once again, getting out cheaply. The wickets were falling from the other end but despite that, Abhishek decided to continue his aggressive approach and brought up his half-century off 25 balls by hitting six Kuldeep for a six.
However, skipper Aiden Markram, who was dropped by Anrich Nortje at long-off in Kuldeep Yadav’s over, couldn’t do much as Mitchell Marsh dismissed the South African for 8. With his superb variations, Marsh bagged another wicket when he got rid of Harry Brook (0), who has struggled for most of the season, except for his century knock in one game.
SRH were 83/4 after 9.4 overs with Abhishek at the crease but the left-hander needed some support. Heinrich Klaasen then joined hands with Abhishek and together they smashed Mukesh Kumar for 24 runs in the 11th over to give some much-needed impetus to SRH innings.
Just when it looked that the partnership would flourish for Sunrisers, Abhishek got out to Axar Patel, leaving SRH in deep trouble. However, Klaasen along with Abdul Samad revived the Hyderabad innings with a useful partnership.
Both Klaasen and Samad mostly dealt in sixes and stitched a vital stand of 53 runs before Marsh struck once again to give Delhi a timely breakthrough by getting rid of the Jammu & Kashmir batter.
From there on, Klaasen had the responsibility to finish it well for Sunrisers and he didn’t disappoint. The South African batter took Delhi bowlers to cleaners in the last few overs and went on to record his first IPL fifty. Klaasen was well-aided by Akeal Hosein’s unbeaten 10-ball 16 as SRH posted 197-6 in 20 overs, which was a winning total in the end.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 197/6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 67, Heinrich Klaasen 53; Mitchell Marsh 4-27) beat Delhi Capitals 188/6 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 63, Philip Salt; Mayank Markande 2-20) by 9 runs.
