The decision to hold back JP Duminy and Kedar Jadhav, their two in-form batsmen, until very late in the innings proved costly for Delhi Daredevils, who lost a rain-affected IPL clash to Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.
After Delhi were asked to bat first on Saturday, the pair of Duminy and Jadhav got together with only 19 balls left in the innings and failed to click on the day as the home team managed only 143 for 7 in their 20 overs.
Chasing a Duckworth-Lewis target of 43 runs in five overs, Hyderabad raced to their fourth win of the season with four balls to spare and eight wickets in hand.
Delhi, currently languishing at the bottom of the points table, made three changes to their team and Kevin Pietersen promoted himself to open the innings with Quinton de Kock. Though De Kock played an uppish drive away from his body to be caught in the covers off Dale Steyn, for a moment it looked to be Pietersen’s day.
He got cracking with a punch off Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the cover fence and then lofted Moises Henriques over the long-on fence followed by a copybook straight drive.
At the other end, Mayank Agarwal, drafted in place of M Vijay, gave him good company, as Delhi’s innings seemed to have hit the right chord. However, both of them fell to Amit Mishra in quick succession.
In Mishra’s first over, Pietersen, on 35, stepped out but failed to middle a slider and Shikhar Dhawan took a regulation catch at short cover as Mishra became the second bowler after Lasith Malinga to scalp 100 wickets in the history of the IPL.
Soon after that, Agarwal (25) hit out against the spin and David Warner completed the formalities at deep midwicket.
With 11.1 overs of play left, Laxmi Ratan Shukla joined Dinesh Karthik in the middle, with Duminy and Jadhav waiting for their turn in the dugout. Shukla and Karthik added 30 runs when lightning and anticipated rain halted play, leading to the loss of close to an hour’s time.
After the game resumed, Delhi had clearly lost the momentum and the Hyderabad bowlers cashed in. They conceded just 40 runs in 41 balls and accounted for Karthik, Shukla, Duminy and Jadhav in the process.
Steyn timed his jump exceptionally well at long-off to take a smart catch inches inside the fence as Karthik’s cameo of 39 came to an end. Four balls later, Warner took another catch at midwicket to send Shukla back as Henriques finished with figures of 2 for 26.
The Duminy-Jadhav partnership lasted only 13 balls before Duminy, shuffling to scoop Bhuvneshwar to fine leg, was beaten by the pace and lost his leg stump.
Rain during the innings break left Hyderabad with a revised target of 117 runs in 15 overs. After 1.1 overs, another rain break reduced the target to 97 in 12 overs.
Hyderabad needed to be 36 without loss at the end of five overs to win the game, but in the third ball after play resumed, Shikhar Dhawan was cramped for space and cut a short delivery from Siddarth Kaul to Duminy at backward point. The end of that over brought more rain and when play resumed, Hyderabad required another 26 runs in three overs.
With 18 needed in 11 balls, Aaron Finch was bowled by Rahul Shukla, but Warner and Naman Ojha hit two sixes and a four in their unbroken 19-run stand to complete the task.
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