Tue, 19 Apr 2011 - IP Delhi vs IP Hyderabad, IPL 2011, 19th Match - Bulletin

Clinical Hyderabad win battle of equals

Delhi couldn’t repeat the batting performance that gave them their maiden win this season against Pune as they failed to chase a target of 169 runs against Hyderabad at Ferozshah Kotla Ground. It was a quite a turnaround for Hyderabad though who had lost three of four matches before Delhi encounter beating home team by 16 runs courtesy an all-round performance with both the bat and ball.

Chase was always going to be difficult on a Kotla pitch where stroke making was getting difficult by every over and to compound the problems for strong Delhi batting lineup, Hyderabad put up a spirited performance with the ball.

Delhi lost three of its top order batsmen upfront for just 38 runs thanks to a double strike from Harmeet Singh playing his first game this season that of skipper Virender Sehwag but David Warner raised their hopes with a gritty fifty. It was unlike Warner innings though as he consumed 48 balls for his 51 and got out to part time off-spin of Shekhar Dhawan when he needed to make a move on.

With required run rate mounting rapidly and spin duo of Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha bowling well in tandem, Delhi never looked to threaten the chase despite late order cameos from James Hopes and young Yogesh Nagar.

Opting to bat first, Hyderabad despite a solid second wicket partnership between opener Sunny Sohal and skipper were limited to only 168 runs as late order batsmen failed to capitalize on a strong foundation.

Having lost Dhawan early to Irfan Pathan didn’t affect the experienced duo of Sanagakara and Sunny Sohal as both batsmen got going to score at more than eight runs per over. While Sunny aimed on-side area for his big shots and played some cute dabs and paddle sweeps, Sangakara was his usual self hitting the gaps and boundaries non-chalantly.

Crisp cover drives, using his feet to spinners and putting bowlers off the line was the characteristics of Sangakkara’s 35 ball knock and was unlucky to miss-out on his half-century when skipper tired to go for a big one off Ashok Dinda only to be holed out in the deep.

Man of the match Sohal timed the first ball of the match to cover boundary and looked calm with his captain who was into his ears all the time to guide the youngster. Sohal was cheeky hitting a couple of boundaries through third man and also paddled some to fine-leg boundary during his best knock of the tournament. He faced 41 balls for his 61 that included eight fours and a solitary six that came off Morne Morkel when youngster deposited tall fast bowler over his head into the stands following it up with one of the shots of the match as he hit Morne on the up to cover-point boundary.

Once Sohal was gone to left arm spin of Shahbaz Nadeem in his search of quick runs, scoring rate dipped considerably as new batting pair of Cameron White and Daniel Christian struggled against some disciplined bowling from Delhi.

Playing his first game of the season, White after getting his eye did hit two boundaries and a six to up the ante in last two overs finishing undefeated on a 25-ball 31.