Warner’s birthday celebrations crush Delhi’s confidence

By K.R. Nayar

 Sunrisers Hyderabad post a mammoth total through the Warner-Saha partnership as Khan strikes with a deadly spell

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s crushing win over Delhi Capitals is a strong message to all the teams at the bottom half of the points table that teams at the top are vulnerable and can be pulled down. Delhi was talked about as the most balanced team in this IPL. They now find themselves as a team struggling to find their winning ways. There was a time they were walking tall with seven wins from nine matches. Now, after losing their third match in succession, they have slipped down the table to the third position.

What went wrong with Delhi that was riding high, leading to an erosion of confidence in all the players, is something even their skipper Shreyas Iyer is unable to comprehend.  Their batting was considered among the best and bowling the strongest in the tournament. It seems as if the blistering knock from Hyderabad skipper Warner further dented their mental strength that has been appearing fragile. Together with Wriddhiman Saha, the pair put on 77 runs within the power play.

Warner celebrated his 34th birthday with a half-century in 25 balls within the power play.  What followed was nothing but an assault on an attack that was hailed as the best. The turning point of the match was when their pacer Kagiso Rabada got mercilessly thrashed for 22 runs in the sixth over. That virtually blew way the confidence of the entire bowling unit and they soon lost their line and length and their plans under the pressure. Tuesday was the first time that their strike bowler Rabada went wicketless in an IPL after 26 innings.

Saha, who was dropped from the playing eleven after the September 26th match against Kolkata Knight Riders, carried on the good start from his skipper who fell at 66. Saha top scored with 87 runs while Manish Pandey chipped in with 44. Hyderabad’s total of 219 for 2 was their second-highest total in the IPL after their 231 for 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore last year.

Faced with the mammoth total, the Delhi batsmen too cracked under pressure. Opener Shikhar Dhawan offered an easy catch to Warner as if presenting him a birthday gift. Marcus Stoinis, who was promoted up the order, also gifted an easy catch to Warner. Hyderabad then introduced their match-winning spinner Rashid Khan, who as usual struck right away. With the first ball, he clean bowled Shimron Hetmyer and went on to produce a spectacular spell of 4-0-7-3 to announce that he is the king among spinners in the world today.