Daredevils knocked out of IPL despite Pant’s maiden hundred

The result: Sunrisers Hyderabad 1-191 (Dhawan 92*, Williamson 83*) beat Delhi Daredevils 5-187 (Pant 128*, Patel 1-32) by 9 wickets.

Chasing the competitive total of 188 runs, Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad while Trent Boult bowled the first over.

Daredevils started well with the ball as they got the wicket of unsafe Alex Hales for 14 in just the second over off Harshal Patel who ended as the only wicket taker for DD. RR will need to win their remaining matches if they are to qualify for the playoffs.

Tonight, it is the game between the team who has been on the top and the team who is right at the bottom.

Delhi made a decision to put scoreboard pressure on the opposition by deciding to bat but things did not go according to plan in the powerplay. They continued their utter and total dominance on the tournament with a convincing victory against the Delhi Daredevils at the Ferozshah Kotla.

At 20 years and 218 days, he became the second youngest Indian batsman after Manish Pandey (in 2009) to score an IPL century.

Earlier, Pant helped the Daredevils overcome a poor start to reach an imposing total. The way Pant attacked Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan was marvellous and this innings will surely give Pant confidence and it will reaffirm that he belongs at the worldwide level and despite Delhi’s dismal season, Pant has turned a corner and his India recall is not far away. Once Harshal got run out, Pant just hit top gear, slamming left-arm spinner Shakib al Hasan over deep mid-wicket to bring up his fifty.

ALSO READ: Sunrisers skipper Kane Williamson is certainly able The duo compiled an unbeaten 176-run stand in 17 overs, never breaking sweat and just playing conventional cricketing strokes.

Even an otherwise economical swing bowler like Bhuvneshwar Kumar was hit for 51 runs in his four overs, with Pant showing his class in the final over of the innings bowled by Bhuvi. In this innings, he hit 15 fours and 7 sixes. SRH won the match and score was 191/1, 18.5 overs.

Rishabh Pant though was not bothered despite being a part of two mix-ups.