SRH qualify for playoffs by crushing hopeless Delhi's season hopes

Rishabh Pant is the wheel Delhi Daredevil has been running on so far. And the other wheel—the whole team apparently, is a much smaller one which has been keeping the Daredevils from running ahead; hence, the team has been circling around the same place—the bottom of the table.

DD’s performance had practically ruled them out of the tournament quite a while ago and their season hopes have ended mathematically too as the team led by Shreyas Iyer fell victim to a defeat in the reverse fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Delhi had reformed the whole setup during the auctions and it hasn’t certainly paid off for the hapless side that is on the verge of winning the wooden spoon yet again.

The young lads of DD tried their best to keep them in the fray but the experienced hands couldn’t drive the team to its ultimate goal, as a result, the Delhi-based team had to bring a change in the captaincy role in the middle of the season. Shreyas Iyer – who took up the relay from Gautam Gambhir – also tried to guide the team well but his efforts went in vain as most of his teammates failed to meet the expectations at times.

On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad had lost one of its most valuable players in the beginning of the season as David Warner lost the deal and the captaincy of his IPL side in the wake of the ball-tampering saga. Then, under Kane Williamson’s stewardship, the team has quite comfortably earned a place in the playoffs and are currently enjoying a six-match winning streak.

The game between the two opposite sides of the spectrum had seen DD bat first following their toss-win. Shakib Al Hasan was quick to remove both their openers during the powerplay and the DD skipper also fell victim to a run out before he could make a significant impact in their innings.

Rishabh Pant fought all-alone as DD registered a total of 187 runs for 5 wickets and 128 of those runs were clubbed by the left-hander, who fought all alone in an attempt to keep DD in the race. And such a total is unexpected when only two other batsmen have entered the double-digits and the highest score between them is 24 runs. That just shows the desperation of the youngster who singlehandedly tried to lift DD up the points table by playing a 63-ball unbeaten innings.

DD were looking good until the onus shifted to the bowlers to take the team past the finishing line and oh dear, how pathetic do your performance has to be to be able to scalp only one wicket after the opponents have been thrown under a truckload of runs! DD’s bowling performance did match that level of “patheticalness” or maybe even went past that as the Alex Hales was the only SRH batsman to be sent back to the hut.

Together Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan formed a 176-run unbeaten partnership which eventually outshone the heroics of Pant.

Dhawan seems to have gotten his old self back as he played a 93-run innings, his 3 50+ innings in this season after 32 long days. Williamson also maintained his consistent run by picking up, what is, his 6 half-century on the trot. He added 83 runs to the total as SRH got home by 9 wickets with 7 balls to spare.

Both the teams have retained their positions in the table and SRH have become the first team to have qualified for the playoffs this season with nine wins in eleven games. DD now have nothing left in the tournament as winning all of their remaining three matches would mean nothing but a pointless comeback.

SRH have a tough challenge ahead as they will take on Chennai Super Kings – who are one or two wins away from qualifying for the playoffs. DD will face Royal Challengers Bangalore who, unlike Delhi, still have a little chance of advancing to the next round.

Scores:

DD 187/5 (20 Overs)

SRH 191/1 (18.5 Overs)

Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 9 wickets