The 36th match of IPL 2018 saw Sunrisers Hyderabad facing the Delhi Daredevils at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday (May 5), where the former registered a thrilling 7-wicket victory.
With this heart-wrenching defeat, DD let slip a good opportunity to stay alive in the cash-rich event whereas SRH returned to the top of the points table with 14 points from nine matches.
Charged up with their nerve-wrecking 4-run victory over Rajasthan Royals two days ago, the spirited Delhi side put on a strong batting show to score 163/5 in 20 overs. While defending the total, DD were on top till the penultimate over before Yusuf Pathan hit the knockout punch to snatch the match in the final over.
Needing 14 runs in the last over, Pathan smacked Trent Boult for 10 runs in the first three deliveries as SRH won the contest with one ball to spare.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, DD skipper Shreyas Iyer said: "Very disappointing to be honest. At certain point we were really in the game, on top but the momentum changed completely."
"It was a really good total to get on the board, even though we got a good start, we didn't capitalize later on, but 10 runs extra would have been nice. It was really hard surface and I knew it wasn't going to turn, I was banking on my seamer Avesh Khan but he didn't turn up that great," he added.
DD included only one spinner in the playing XI on Saturday and Iyer termed it as a perfect decision given the pitch and conditions of Hyderabad.
"It was the perfect decision (to play only one spinner) on this wicket with the ball not turning that much, Mishra bowled really well and got two crucial wickets for us. It was a good chase from them," he opined.
Delhi’s fielding standards hit another low last night as Glenn Maxwell dropped Alex Hales in the second over while Vijay Shankar spilled Pathan's catch when he was yet to open his account.
When asked to comment on the dropped catches, the DD skipper said: "Catches win matches and we have been practicing really hard on our fielding, but when the nerves are really high, it happens and is part of the game; can't really complain now."
Iyer concluded by praising the SRH batting line-up that held the nerves in tough times to pull off a stiff chase.
"We didn't give up till the end. They [SRH] had a good start and they have a good batting line-up, are on top of the table and they backed themselves to chase this down," he concluded.
