It is not often that a player takes a four-wicket haul and scores a stunning half century in T20 match but ends up on the losing side. But such is the season that Delhi Capitals are having that Mitch Marsh’s 4/27 and 63 off 39 wasn’t enough for them to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad in Delhi on Saturday.
SRH defeated the hosts by 9 runs to move up to 6th in the points table while DC remained rooted to the bottom as they lost their sixth match out of eight played.
Opting to bat first, SRH recovered from 109/5 and thanks to Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen’s vital half-centuries posted a brilliant 197/6 in the 20 overs.
The run-chase looked like it would be a walk in the park for DC as Marsh and Phil Salt posted a brilliant century stand that took them to 111/1 in 11 overs. But both set batters departed in quick succession and from their SRH applied the squeeze. Delhi’s use of Axar Patel’s batting was once again questionable and they fell short of the target.
Mayank Markande (2/20) was superb for SRH and his dismissal of Salt was a turning point.
Despite being on the losing side, Marsh was named player of the match.
| TEAM | P | W | L | NRR | FOR | AGAINST | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.638 | 1402/155.1 | 1338/159.2 | 12 |
| RR | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.939 | 1476/159.2 | 1332/160.0 | 10 |
| LSG | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.841 | 1436/156.0 | 1334/159.3 | 10 |
| CSK | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.376 | 1495/156.5 | 1459/159.2 | 10 |
| RCB | 8 | 4 | 4 | -0.139 | 1441/156.2 | 1497/160.0 | 8 |
| PBKS | 8 | 4 | 4 | -0.510 | 1372/155.3 | 1428/153.0 | 8 |
| KKR | 9 | 3 | 6 | -0.147 | 1639/176.0 | 1616/170.5 | 6 |
| SRH | 8 | 3 | 5 | -0.577 | 1271/157.1 | 1340/154.4 | 6 |
| MI | 7 | 3 | 4 | -0.620 | 1232/137.4 | 1287/134.3 | 6 |
| DC | 8 | 2 | 6 | -0.898 | 1230/159.2 | 1363/158.1 | 4 |
For SRH, Klaasen hit an unbeaten 53 to steer Hyderabad to 197 with some big hits.
Marsh returned bowling figures of 4-27 including a maiden over and then hit a 39-ball 63 but the effort was not enough for bottom-placed Delhi, who fell to their sixth loss in eight matches.
“Took me a few games to get going, but a disappointing loss,” said Marsh, who became the third player to be named man of the match from the losing side this season.
“We’ve been on the wrong end of a few (close matches) but we do feel there is a long way to go in this tournament.”
Former champions Hyderabad, who won their only title in 2016 under current Delhi skipper David Warner, bounced back from their three losses to move up one spot to eighth.
Warner fell for a two-ball duck but Delhi’s chase looked good during a 112-run second-wicket partnership between Salt, who made 59, and Marsh.
Hyderabad hit back with three wickets in three overs through their spinners and once Salt and Marsh departed the chase lost track.
Rising Indian leg-spinner Mayank Markande stood out with figures of 2-20 including getting Salt, a wicketkeeper-batsman from England, caught and bowled.
Batsmen set up victory after left-hand opener Abhishek Sharma smashed 67 off 36 balls after Hyderabad skipper Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat first.
Hyderabad seemed to slip after they lost a few wickets but Klaasen, who struck his first IPL half-century, put on a couple of partnerships including a sixth-wicket stand of 53 with Abdul Samad to boost the total.
In the first match of the day, a fine partnership between Vijay Shankar and David Miller steered holders Gujarat Titans to the top of the table with a seven-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
Chasing 180 for victory, Gujarat were in trouble at 93-3 when Shankar (51) and the left-handed Miller (32) combined to achieve victory with 13 balls to spare at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.
(With AFP inputs)
