Watch: Sunrisers restrict Delhi to 133 in 20 overs, rain delays start of SRH innings

Sunrisers captain and pace ace Pat Cummins bowled with fire taking three wickets including sending back Karun Nair for a first-ball duck

HYDERABAD: A stand-out bowling performance by Sunrisers Hyderabad, aided by poor shot selection, saw Delhi Capitals, put into bat, score a modest 133 for seven in 20 overs in the IPL league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Monday night. However, immediately after the Delhi innings, heavy rains forced the ground staff to bring on the covers, delaying the start of the Sunrisers’ innings.

A fighting, seventh wicket stand of 66 between Tristan Stubbs (41, 36b, 4×4) and ‘Impact Player’ Ashutosh Sharma (41, 26b, 2×4, 3×6), who hit three huge sixes, including two in one over off leggie Zeeshan Ansari, helped Delhi cross the 100-mark which at one stage looked beyond reach.

Captain and pace ace Pat Cummins bowled with fire (3-0-12-3) removing Karun Nair (0) for a first-ball duck, saw Faf du Plessis (3) play across the line only to edge to the wicketkeeper and then struck another huge blow to see Abishek Porel (8) mistime his pick-up shot over square-leg only to see wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan run towards backward short-leg to take his third catch and give the captain his third wicket.

The body language of the Sunrisers was pretty discernible, given the energy with which the players moved around to the delight of the capacity crowd.

Both Cummins and left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat gave little freedom for strokeplay, cramping the batters.

Compounding the misery of Delhi, pacer Harshal Patel struck with his fifth ball – forcing Axar Patel to go for the lofted stroke on the off-side of a slower ball which was angled across, only to see the batter mistime and Pat Cummins bring off an impressive catch, running behind.

For Delhi, it was a pathetic power-play (26/4 in six overs).

Soon, left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat dismissed in-form KL Rahul (10), swishing at an away-going ball only to be caught behind to give Ishan his fourth catch of the innings (29/5 in 7.1 overs).

In the 12th over, Tristan Stubbs played one to deep mid-wicket off leggie Zeeshan Ansari and charged down for the second run with non-striker Vipraj Nigam (18)least interested. This saw the two at the bowler’s end (62/6 in 12.1 overs), and the latter sacrificing his wicket.