IPL24 : Head- Abhishek slaughters Delhi Capitals as SRH gets 5th win of the season

 

If a team scores 125 runs without a wicket in the first six overs, then what remains of that match?  This is how Hyderabad was on the rampage at Feroz Shah Kotla against Delhi on Saturday.  Delhi was playing at home for the first time.  In between, two 'home matches' had to be played in Visakhapatnam.  However, Rishabh Panth's team did not have a good experience of returning to their original  home.  Batting first, Hyderabad made a mammoth 266/7.  In reply, Delhi was stopped at 199 runs.  Loss by 67 runs for the hosts.  Hyderabad's Travis Head narrowly missed out on his second century.  But he made an explosive 89 off 32 balls which did the damage.  Abhishek Sharma (46 from 12 balls) and Shahbaz Ahmed (59 not out from 29 balls) as partners should not be forgotten.  In reply, none could fight except Jake Fraser-McGurk of Delhi.

 Delhi had to get off to a good start chasing huge runs.  It is really difficult to score around 13 runs per over.  The start was not bad though. Prithvi started the innings with four blistering fours off the first four balls but he caught off the fifth ball and his innings was nipped in the bud for 16.  David Warner returned to the team after some time but was out cheaply .  But Fraser-McGurk was determined to turn the game around.  In the third over, Washington Sundar was slaughtered with three fours and three sixes by Fraser to blast 30 runs in 6 balls.  His partner was Abhishek Porel of Bengal.  He also continued to play.  Cummins brought in Mayank Markande at such a time.  McGurk was dismissed after taking 21 runs from his over.  He scored 65 off 18 balls.

Abhishek Porel also contributed with 42 off 22 balls.  But a team wants to chase such a big run, it cannot rely on one or two people.  The whole team has to come forward.  It was not seen later.  Tristan Stubbs (10)  and Rishabh Pant (44) played so hard that the pace of runs slowed down a lot as both could not get any momentum to their batting .  Delhi could not come out of that place.  Natarajan bowled superbly on this batting pitch to get 4/19 of his 4 overs . Markande and the promising  Nitish Reddy took 2 wickets each .

 Mumbai and Bengaluru proved what Hyderabad can do when given the chance to bat first.  This time Delhi also saw the rampage of Hyderabad.  After the match, Pant may wonder why he had sent Hyderabad to bat first after winning the toss.  Thought to take advantage of the pitch.  But Travis or Abhishek took the pitch out of the question.  Their ferocious strokeplay was to be seen to be believed as they came out all guns blazing .

 When SRH batted , Khalil Ahmed gave 19 in the first over.  Head made his attitude clear by hitting a six off the second ball.  Surprisingly, the Delhi bowlers could not stem the flow .  Pant brought the spinner in the second over.  That Lalit Yadav wa slaughtered too .  Two sixes off his first two balls.  21 runs came in that over.

 Pant wanted to change the pace  by bringing Nortje.  Head said 'welcome' by hitting the first four fours and a six.  Lalit came in the next over and gave 21 runs again.  The fans' eyes widened.  It was as if Head and Abhishek  Sharma was playing video games!  Head and Abhishek Sharma were not going to stop after that such was their hitting ferocity !! 

Head was cutting balls off the stumps off pacers , driving and pulling at explosive ferocity  while Abhishek was using his feet to the spinners to smote them for sixes as the Indo- Aussie duo made a mincement of a quality Delhi attack . 

 Pant brought on Delhi's best weapon Kuldeep Yadav in the fifth over.  Abhishek hit him for two sixes in the beginning.  Six in the last ball.  Runs crossed 100 in five overs.  It was understood that KKR's 105 in the power play was not secure.  It was broken on the first ball of the sixth over.  Head hit him with four fours in a row.

Hyderabad could not maintain that rhythm in the next over.  Kuldeep dismissed Abhishek (40 in 12 balls ) with the second ball of the seventh over.  Aiden Markram (1)  also returned in the same over.  Hyderabad's two wickets fell in the same over.  The remaining two big hitters , namely Head (89) and Klassen (15) , returned two balls apart.

 Later, Nitish Reddy (37) and Shahbaz (59) played aggressively.   Shahbaz continued to play a little later, but the team crossed the two-and-a-half-hundred mark.  He took a cautious policy with so many wickets falling in quick succession.  So at one time it seemed that Hyderabad's runs would easily cross 300, but they stopped at 266 runs.  The only consolation for Delhi was Kuldeep Yadav's four wickets.