Moises Henriques' gritty fifty and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar's crafty bowling helped SunRisers Hyderabad stay in the hunt for the playoffs as they beat Delhi Daredevils by 6 runs in a hard-fought match, here on Saturday. SRH jumped to the fourth spot with their sixth win in 11 games, while seventh-placed DD suffered their eighth loss in 12 matches to end their hopes of a final-four spot.
Electing to bat at the Shaheed Veer Narayan International Stadium - DD's second home, SRH rode on an unbeaten 74 from man-of-the-match Henriques to post 163 for four in 20 overs. The David Warner-led side then defended its target after restricting DD to 157 for four as Kedar Jadhav (63 not out) and Saurabh Tiwary (26 not out) stood disappointed with a 91-run unbeaten stand.
Bhuvneshwar (1-20) struck early as the medium-pacer got Shreyas Iyer caught and bowled for a naught in the third over of the innings. Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock (50) then stitched a 47-run partnership with skipper Jean-Paul Duminy (12) to give the side some stability. But in came leg-spinner Karn Sharma (2-12), the sixth bowler in nine overs, and got dangerman De Kock stumped on a delivery that tossed and turned to draw the South African out of his crease.
Off-spinner Parvez Rasool (1-20) got Yuvraj Singh (2) caught at long on in the very next over and Karn was the catcher. Jadhav, his 34-ball knock laced with 8 fours and 2 sixes, and Tiwary again raised hopes of a successful chase with a good-looking fifth wicket stand but just ran out of steam in the end. Needing 22 of the final two overs, Bhuvneshwar bowled a near-perfect penultimate over to give away just 6 runs. Ishant Sharma then did the job as he never allowed DD to get 16 runs off the final 6 deliveries even after the over started with a boundary.
Brief Scores
SRH: 163/4 in 20 overs (Moises Henriques 74 not out; Nathan Coulter-Nile 2/25) beat DD: 157/4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 50, Kedar Jadhav 63*, Saurabh Tiwary 26*; Karn Sharma 2/12) by 6 runs.