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DC Beats SRH In Closely Fought Super Over

Delhi Capital won against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a thrilling last-ball super over the finish. The match was at the Chepauk stadium in Chennai, whose pitch has been under heavy criticism. It looked like a minefield even before the match began, and batters have found it difficult to score runs here.

DC captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and decided to bat first. The trailblazing duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw opened the batting and opened an excellent opening stance. Shaw took the strike and hit the first three balls of the innings for fours. There was no stopping him after that, and he continued to score at a reasonable rate. He reached 50 runs at the end of the 10th over, DC being 80-0 at that point. Dhawan was playing solidly, scoring around run a ball. He got out for 28 when he tried to run down the track to Rashid Khan but got beaten and bowled. Shaw got out shortly after in a nightmarish run-out. The new batter Rishabh Pant edged the ball to the third man. Shaw was already halfway across the pitch when Pant agreed to a run but soon realised that there was no run and sent Shaw back. Shaw had no chance to reach the crease in time, and it was a particularly unlucky wicket as he was playing very well. Steven Smith and Pant deployed reverse sweeps to take advantage of the fact that the third man fielder was inside the circle. Smith edged a ball to the third man off Vijay Shankar, but Siddharth Kaul dropped a sitter. As Danny Morrison said on air, it was a “dig a hole and hide” moment. In the end, the batters could not accelerate much, and DC ended with 159 runs.

David Warner and Jonny Bairstow opened the innings for SRH. Ashwin bowled the second over and managed to convince the umpire that Bairstow edged the ball to the keeper, but the decision was reviewed and changed. Bairstow was also dropped in the same over by Shemron Hetmyer at the deep mid-wicket boundary, but it was a half-chance at best. Warner was run-out as the batters ran when there was no run at all. The ball went straight to extra-cover and was returned to the keeper in a jiffy, giving Warner no chance to get back. Bairstow got out caught off Avesh Khan after scoring a quickfire 38 runs off 18 balls. A magnificent failure of the middle order saw Virat Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan getting out without scoring many runs. Kane Williamson was the saviour, scoring 66 runs. He and Jagdeesha Suchith single-handedly got SRH to 159 runs by scoring 24 runs in the last 9 balls. Suchith smashed two 4s and a 6 to score 15 runs off 6 balls.

SRH chose Williamson and Warner as their first two in the super over, a decision questioned by many as Bairstow is an explosive player and had scored quick runs in this match itself. Axar Patel was DC’s favoured bowler, and Axar revealed in the post-match interview that he had himself suggested to captain Rishabh Pant that he should bowl the super over as the ball was gripping for spinners. It was a successful decision as with only one boundary conceded, and SRH could only set a target of 7 runs (it would have been 8, but Warner ran one short on the last ball).

Rashid Khan bowled the Super Over for SRH. Pant and Dhawan came off as DC’s first and second. Pant scored a boundary by reverse sweeping the ball over the third man. Two singles took the total to 6 runs off 3 balls. The successive two balls were appeals for LBW, but both turned out to be not out. The batters managed to scamper across for a run on the last ball and win the match. It was a thrilling end with credit to Axar Patel and Rashid Khan for restricting the batsmen from scoring quickly.

Soham Shah

Enthusiastic journalism student, Urdu poetry enthusiast and speedcuber. I love to acquire new skills and discover new avenues.

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