Delhi ride on Pant's 128*, score 187/5
10 May 2018 6:30 PM GMT
New delhi: When others faltered on a decisive night for Delhi Daredevils, Rishabh Pant exuded class of his own with a splendid century to take the home side to 187 against table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Thursday.
In the middle of the innings, Delhi looked all at sea as the score read 52 for the loss of three wickets. But the tables turned in the last 10 overs due to the 20-year-old southpaw (128 off 63), who scored 104 out of the 135 runs amassed by Delhi.
Earlier, opting to bat first against the best bowling line-up of IPL 11, Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer made three changes in the line-up that had lost in the away leg against Sunrisers last weekend. Opener Jason Roy, spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and all-rounder Harshal Patel came in for Colin Munro, Rahul Tewatia and Avesh Khan respectively. Whereas, SRH's Kane Williamson made a solitary like-for-like change in wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami for Wriddhiman Saha,
A tight powerplay bowling by the traveling team soon paid the dividend as spinner Shakib-al Hasan claimed two wickets in successive deliveries to send both the openers packing in the fourth over.
The fall of wicket started with Prithvi (9 runs off 11 balls) who miscued a shot straight into the safe hands of Shikhar Dhawan, followed by Roy (11 off 13), who was caught behind by Goswami. The going only got tougher for Delhi in the eighth over when Iyer (3 off 8 balls) was caught runout for the second time in the tournament after a poor call from Pant.
The preceding four overs saw only 13 runs as Sunrisers began to stranglehold their grip in the game.
However, Pant had other plans as he lifted the barrage on the flow of runs by scoring 42 runs in the next 3 overs. Patel and Pant forged a 55-run stand to rebuild the innings for a desperate Delhi side. Unfortunately, the partnership came to an abrupt end after another running-between-the-wickets gaffe by Delhi's Ranji captain. Patel (24 off 17) was caught way off the crease by 'keeper Goswami.
Unperturbed by the goof-up, Pant's onslaught continued as he forged a 63-run partnership with Maxwell (9 off 8) to take Delhi above 150. Bhuvneswar Kumar, who had enjoyed a decent run so far in the game, was reaped to shreds by Pant in the final over. The local boy shot three sixes and a couple of boundaries to garner 26 runs from the final over.
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