Starc, Kuldeep help Delhi Capitals restrict Sunrisers to 164

Sunrisers were in trouble at 25 for three in 2.3 overs. Starc tormented the batting line-up dismissing the dangerous looking Travis Head and reducing SRH to 37 for four in 4.1 overs

Visakhapatnam: Aniket Verma was the surprising batting hero for Sunrisers Hyderabad cracking a brilliant 74 (41b, 5×4, 6×6) as it set up a modest target of 164 for Delhi Capitals in the IPL league match at the ACA-VDCA International Stadium here on Sunday.

For 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. It was a splendid effort by Aniket when the other big name in batting except Heinrich Klaasen failed to get going.

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In the first over, Abhishek Sharma (1), who was slow to respond for a sharp single from striker Travis Head was stranded and not the kind of start Sunrisers would have hoped for.

Then, in the third over, Aussie pace ace Mitchell Starc struck a double blow – forcing southpaw Ishan Kishan (2) slash straight to third man and then local hero Nitish Kumar Reddy moved away to play a mistimed pull stroke for a two-ball duck.

Sunrisers was clearly in trouble at 25 for three in 2.3 overs. Starc continued to torment the batting line-up dismissing the dangerous looking Travis Head (22, 12b, 4×4) as he slashed only to edge to the wicketkeeper to the delight of the Capitals’ camp to make it a pathetic 37 for four in 4.1 overs.

It was a superb spell by Starc, who mixed his pace with yorkers and widish length giving little away. But, Heinrich Klaasen was in a different mood – pulling nonchalantly over the fence and then essaying an extravagant cover drive to the fence in one over from Starc.

Capitals’ captain and left-arm spinner Axar Patel would have had Aniket Verma (on 6) with his second ball but Abhishek Porel failed to latch on to the leading edge when the batter played across the line in the sixth over. In the power-play Sunrisers scored a paltry 58 for four.

That fielding lapse proved costly as the 23-year-old Aniket from Uttar Pradesh played a brilliant knock which included two massive sixes in one over off Axar – one over square-leg and one straight into the sight screen.

Soon, a superb catch, running back from backward point by Vipraj Nigam to latch on to a leading edge off an intended off-drive by Heinrich Klaasen (32, 19b, 2×4, 2×6) off pacer Mohit Sharma in the 11th over was just the kind of breakthrough Capitals needed badly (114 for five) to come back into the game.

This ended the best partnership (77 off 42 balls) between Aniket and Klaasen for the fifth wicket.

A couple of quick wickets soon saw Sunrisers slip to 123 for seven in 14 overs. But Aniket continued to toy with the bowlers hitting a four and two huge sixes in one over off Axar in the 15th over.

A brilliant catch when Fraser McGurk timed his jump to perfection at deep mid-wicket to hold on to a shot from Aniket off left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav provided the much needed relief to Capitals in the 16^th over. Kuleep was once again exceptional with his spell of 4-0-22-3.