Agencies
Visakhapatnam, April 18
Skipper Jean-Paul Duminy led from the front with a brilliant all-round display as Delhi Daredevils pipped Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs in a thrilling Indian Premier League cricket match on Saturday.
Duminy first smashed 54 off 41 balls as Daredevils scored a decent 167 for four and then chipped in with four wickets as visitors kept their nerves in the crucial stages of the nail-biting contest to restrict Sunrisers to 163 for eight and record their second successive win at the ACA-VDCA Stadium.
Needing just 10 runs off the last over with Ashish Reddy and Karn Sharma at the crease, Nathan Coulter-Nile got the former run-out in the second ball of the over.
Two balls later, with Hyderabad needing seven runs from two deliveries, Karn went for a huge hit towards the point boundary but fielder Mayank Agarwal went back to the edge of the rope, leapt up and effected a goalkeeper like save as he parried the ball back in play saving what looked like a sure shot six.
Mayank's superb save made all the difference in the end and last ball of the match resulted in Sharma getting out, handing Delhi their second consecutive win.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils managed to get on board a competitive score, thanks to fearless batting by young Shreyas Iyer (60 off 40 balls) and Duminy (54) after electing to bat on a difficult pitch.
In reply, the Sunrisers seemed to achieve the target as they were cruising at 50 for no loss in just six overs, but Duminy changed the equation, grabbing four for 17 to guide the team to victory.
Coulter-Nile, Angelo Mathews and Imran Tahir took wicket apiece. Duminy accounted for the top order, seeing off dangerous David Warner (28), Shikhar Dhawan (18), top scorer Ravi Bopara (41) and Eoin Morgan (1).
The Sunrisers got off to a good start with Warner and Dhawan putting on 50 runs for the opening wicket before Bopara coupled with KL Rahul (24) and Naman Ojha (12) to keep Hyderabad always within achieving the total.
Comfortably placed at 110/3 in 15 overs, the Sunrisers lost Naman Ojha, Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan in space of seven deliveries.
Duminy dismissed Bopara and Morgan with the fourth and sixth ball of the 17th over to tilt the match completely in Delhi's favour.
But some good batting by Reddy (15) and Karn (19) made sure that the match went down to the wire.
Earlier, the Daredevils lost opener Mayank (1) in the third over with Bhuvneshwar Kumar striking early for the Hyderabad outfit.
But Iyer and Duminy made sure there are no further damage early on, as the duo put on 78 runs together for the second wicket to steer the team to a competitive total.
Surprisingly Shreyas turned out to be more dominating than his South African partner, hitting the balls at will.
Shreyas came up with three boundaries and five sixes during his 40-ball knock. He hit two sixes of successive balls bowled by leggie Karn in the 10th over of the Delhi innings.
Duminy was more guarded during his innings that came off 41 deliveries and was studded with five fours and two sixes.
Medium pacer Praveen Kumar gave the much-needed breakthrough to the Sunrisers by seeing off Iyer in the 12th over, and had a great chance of taking another one with the last ball of the same over.
But Ravi Bopara dropped a catch at the mid-wicket to give the new batsman, Yuvraj Singh a lease of life.
But the star batsman Yuvraj, who was purchased by the Delhi franchise for a whopping Rs.16 crore, could hardly capitalise on the advantage.
Duminy, on the other end, pounced on every loose ball that came his way, churning out 15 runs off Bopara's over to take the Delhi outfit to 121 for two at the end of 15th over.
However, pacer Dale Steyn, who after a three-match wait was finally included in the playing XI, replacing Trent Boult, justified his selection by dismissing his dangerous South African teammate to bring the Sunrisers back into the game.
To add to Delhi's woes, Yuvraj (9) got out in the very next over, bowled by A Ashish Reddy.
The ball was sailing beyond the midwicket boundary, but David Warner timed his jump to perfection, holding his hands over the head just at the right time to grab a stunning catch.
Although the double blow rocked the Daredevils for a brief period, Angelo Mathews (15 not out) and Kedar Jadhav (19 not out) quickly got into the groove and their little cameos to propel the score beyond 165-run mark.
Bhuvneshwar (1/21) was the pick of the bowlers who ended with an economy rate of less than six per over. Besides Bhuvneshwar, Steyn, Praveen and Reddy all picked up a wicket each.
