Delhi Capitals dazzles with seven-wicket win in Vizag as Starc magic restricts Sunrisers to a subpar score of 163

Second win for the Capitals from two ‘home’ games to begin the campaign in style

Visakhapatnam: Delhi Capitals’ all-round brilliance proved too much for Sunrisers Hyderabad as the ‘home’ team notched up a seven-wicket win at the ACA-VDCA International Stadium here on Sunday.

This was the second win for the Capitals from two ‘home’ games to begin the campaign in style.

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Chasing a modest 164, the Capitals was off to a flyer thanks to Faf du Plessis blitzkrieg (50, 27b, 3×4, 3×6). Treating every bowler with disdain, the straight six of Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins being the pick of the strokes. He showed the way, and the others just followed like Abishek Porel (34 n.o., 18b, 2×4, 2×6) to ensure there were no
dramatic twists.

This despite leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari, on his IPL debut, raised Sunrisers’ hopes, dismissing Faf du Plessis and Jake Fraser McGurk (38, 32b, 4×4, 2×6) in the 10th over and that after the latter hit him for two fours and a six. In his next over, he cleaned up KL Rahul (15, 5b, 2×4, 1×6), bowled round his legs, trying to sweep.

But, it was obvious the target was well within the reach of Capitals despite these setbacks.

Earlier, a disciplined bowling effort, backed by brilliant catching, saw Sunrisers fail to breach the 200-mark for the second match in a row.

The 23-year-old, hard-hitting Aniket Verma, dropped on six, was the surprise batting hero with a superb knock (74, 41b, 5×4, 6×6).

With the exception of Heinrich Klaasen (32, 19b, 2×4, 2×6), with whom Aniket put on 77 runs for the fifth wicket in 42 balls, the other big names failed to come good.

For the Capitals, Australian pace ace and left-armer Mitchell Starc with a five-wicket haul (5/35)and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3/22) were the lead performers.

Once Abhishek Sharma (1) was run out in the first over, Starc struck a double blow in the third over, dismissing Ishan Kishan (2) and local hero Nitish Kumar Reddy (0).

Soon, Starc forced the dangerous-looking Travis Head (22, 12b, 4×4) to slash and only edge to the wicketkeeper to the delight of the Capitals’ camp (37/4 in 4.1 overs).

It was a superb spell by Starc, who mixed pace with yorkers and a wide length, giving little away.

Later, it was a terrific catch, running back from backward point by Vipraj Nigam, which signalled the end of Klaasen of pacer Mohit Sharma in the 11th over, a breakthrough which Capitals needed badly (114 for five).

Soon, Kuldeep sent back Aniket, thanks to a superb catch by Fraser McGurk at deep mid-wicket in the 16th over, which brought Capitals back into the game.