Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) took on Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 35th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Saturday, April 20 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi .
Delhi Capitals entered the clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad with a record of 11 wins and 12 losses in 23 matches played between the teams. Although SRH led the head-to-head record with 12 wins to their name, in recent years the Delhi Capitals (DC) dominated the Orange Army with their performance.
Of the last six matches between the teams, DC has won five and in the last 10 matches they have won seven and SRH has won only 3. In the previous meeting between the teams before the Indian Premier League 2024 clash, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) by 9 runs in the 40th match of IPL 2023 on April 29. Batting first, SRH posted 197/6 on the board and restricted DC to 188/6 in their 20 overs to emerge victorious.
Talking about their IPL 2024 clash, Delhi Capitals chose to bowl first after winning the toss and were horrible in the powerplay. SRH openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma outwitted DC’s bowling unit and blasted 125 runs in the powerplay.
Travis and Sharma were dismissed for 89 and 46 as Kuldeep Yadav helped DC make a slight comeback in the match with his exceptional bowling. However, Shahbaz Ahmed smashed a quick 59 runs and SRH posted a massive 266/7 on the board. For DC, Kuldeep Yadav bagged 4 wickets, while Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar got one wicket each.
Chasing the target, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel played sensational innings after the failure of Prithvi Shaw and David Warner. However, they failed to bat deep and in the end, Rishabh Pant looked sluggish as DC were bowled out for 199 in 19.1 overs to lose the match by 67 runs. For SRH, T Natarajan bagged 4 wickets while Nitish Reddy and Mayank Markande picked two wickets each.
Power play made the difference – Rishabh Pant
Talking to the commentators after the match, the Delhi Capitals captain seemed quite dejected, it was then that Sunil Gavaskar told Rishabh Pant to keep a smile on his face and the latter promised the great batsman that he would do his best.
Sunil Gavaskar said: “I never want you to lower your head, there are many games, so always keep a smile.” Pant answered: “I’ll do my best, sir.”
Rishabh Pant also said that they opted to bowl first keeping in mind the dew factor in the second innings. Rishabh Pant said:
“I think the only thought process behind it was that there might have been dew that didn’t come (by choosing to bowl first), but we would still have had a chance if we had restricted them to 220-230.”
Rishabh Pant admitted that Delhi Capitals’ record run breakaway in the powerplay was the difference in the match and that was the reason behind their defeat.
“The power play was the difference, they got (125) runs and we ended up catching up after that. The ball stopped more in the second innings, that was more than we anticipated, but when we needed to chase 260, 270, “We will have to continue scoring.”
Rishabh Pant also hoped for a better performance from his team in the upcoming matches and praised youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk for his heroics. Rishabh Pant said:
“Hopefully we’ll have more thought processes and a clear mindset going forward. His batting has been phenomenal (at Fraser-McGurk), he’s been kind to us, that’s what we need to do as a team, stick together. “Look at areas in which we can improve for the next game.