David Warner returned to blistering form with an unbeaten 92 and a 100-plus stand with Rovman Powell to seal a 21-run win for Delhi Capitals over Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday.
The Australia opener hit 12 fours and three sixes in his 58-ball innings with the West Indies’ Powell, who too stayed unbeaten, on 67 off 35 balls with three fours and six massive sixes.
Hyderabad fizzled out at 186-8 in reply to Delhi’s 207-3 and only led the first few overs of the game after skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to field first.
India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a wicket-maiden and dismissed Warner’s opening partner Mandeep Singh to give a perfect start for Sunrisers.
Kumar was also the best bowler for his team and finished his four overs with a wicket for 25 runs.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh fell on 10 to fellow Australian Sean Abbott before Delhi’s middle-order took control.
Captain Rishabh Pant hit three sixes and a four in one Shreyas Gopal over before falling to the spinner in a brief but promising 16-ball 26.
Delhi didn’t lose any more wickets as Warner and Powell stitched a 122-run partnership and destroyed Hyderabad’s pace battery.
Indian rookie pacers – Umran Malik and Kartik Tyagi – gave away 89 runs in their eight wicketless overs and Abbott finished with 1-47 in his four overs.
Hyderabad lost both openers very early in the chase. Williamson fell after a scratchy 11-ball 4 to South Africa’s Anrich Nortje and Abhishek Sharma (7) fell to left-arm pace of Khaleel Ahmed.
The Hyderabad middle-order failed to keep up with the high run rate for the chase.
Rahul Tripathi fell on 22 to Marsh and South African Aiden Markram fell to Ahmed after a punchy 25-ball 42 with four boundaries and three sixes.
Ahmed also took Abbott’s (8) scalp and finished his four overs with 3-30.
The West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran kept Hyderabad’s slim hopes alive with a 34-ball 62 and hit two fours and six sixes before falling to Shardul Thakur. Thakur finished his four overs with two wickets for 44 runs.
The other three Delhi bowlers – pacers Nortje, Marsh and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav – took one wicket each in their four over spells.
“For us, it’s just going back to the drawing board and keeping things really simple,” Williamson said after his team’s third successive defeat.
“An outstanding knock from David Warner and Powell at the end, two great contributions that went a long way toward them winning the game,” he added.
Brief Scores
Delhi Capitals 207 for 3 (Warner 92*, Powell 67*) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 186 for 8 (Pooran 62, Khaleel 3-30) by 21 runs.
Delhi Capitals’ David Warner in action against Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday.
