It came down to the Sunrisers needing 13 runs from the last over in a game where the momentum swung like a pendulum. Impact substitute Mukesh Kumar, maintained his composure to allow only five runs in the over. Washington Sundar (24 not out, 15b) did a commendable job of keeping SRH in the game till the last over, but he ultimately struggled to locate the gaps.
Sunrisers were only able to reach 36/1 in the first six overs of their chase, despite Mayank Agarwal (49, 39b) smashing six fours in the powerplay by capitalizing on a hint of width outside off-stump. Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi failed to knock a single boundary from the seventh to the tenth over as the asking rate increased during the middle phase. When Agarwal cut a short ball to the right of the deep point fielder for four in the eleventh over, the sequence was finally broken.
SRH still required 78 runs from the final nine overs. Tripathi’s inability to find his rhythm caused pressure on Agarwal to match the asking price to become apparent. He charged at Axar Patel but was killed by the flight and missed Aman Khan at a distance.
After yet another subpar batting performance, Delhi will be happy with their victory. At 49/2 after six overs, they had a good enough foundation to compile a significant total. Mitchell Marsh laid the groundwork with his 15-ball 25, which included four fours in one over from left-arm pacer Marco Jansen. Crisp drives piercing the cover region were combined with flicks through the leg side.
Washington Sundar’s all-around effort was in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered their third straight IPL loss on Monday as Delhi Capitals defeated them by seven runs despite a subpar chase. After David Warner decided to bat, the off-spin all-rounder Sundar (4-0-28-3) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-11-2) exposed the Delhi Capitals’ batting weaknesses in the first half of the game to limit them to 144/9. However, an odd batting strategy in which SRH never attempted to dominate resulted in their collapse as they were held to a score of 137/6.
SRH recovered after losing half of their team for 85 runs in 14.1 overs, led by Heinrich Klaasen (31; 19b, 3×4, 1×6) and Sundar, who scored 24 runs in 15 balls without being out (3x4s).
However, Anrich Nortje (4-0-33-2) eventually removed his South African teammate, and Mukesh Kumar bowled an outstanding last over to hold off 13 runs, giving Delhi a thrilling but narrow second successive victory of the year.
Pandey and Axar made the decision to stockpile ones and twos with the occasional boundary sprinkled in until the final four overs knowing that another wicket at that point may spell doom. Axar decided to pick up the pace as Mayank Markande entered the game for his final over, hitting three straight fours in a 15-run over. Their strategy ultimately worked.
However, Delhi, which had a five-match losing streak to start the season, remained at the bottom of the standings with just four points.
