Delhi Capitals bowlers pulled the plug in the middle overs, restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to a par score of 162 for 8 on a good batting surface in the IPL 2019 Eliminator at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
Keemo Paul (3/32 in 4 overs) was ably supported by Amit Mishra (1/16 in 4 overs), Ishant Sharma (2/34 in 4 overs) and Axar Patel (0/30 in 4 overs) as the quartet bowled 40 dot balls between them.
Electing to bowl, Delhi Capitals got off to a good start with Sharma getting rid of Wriddhiman Saha (8), who offered a simple catch to Shreyas Iyer at mid-off.
Martin Guptill (36, 19 balls) hit four sixes, including two off his countrymate Trent Boult, to set the pace in the powerplay overs, which yielded 54 runs.
The Delhi bowlers gave away only 108 runs in the next 14 overs.
As Guptill was in attacking mood, it gave the normally flamboyant Manish Pandey (30, 36 balls) to play around before the spinners came in operation.
Axar and Mishra choked the run-flow and Guptill was accounted for trying to slog sweep the leg-spinner.
Sunrisers suddenly lost momentum in those middle overs as Pandey and Kane Williamson (27 off 26 balls) added only 34 runs in seven overs before the former was dismissed by a Keemo Paul slower delivery. Pandey holed out to Sherfane Rutherford at long-on boundary making it 90 for 3 for Sunrisers.
Sharma coming in his second spell bowled the perfect inswinging yorker to send back Williamson.
Vijay Shankar (25 off 11 balls) and Mohammed Nabi (20 off 13 balls) added 36 runs in 2.4 overs to beef up the total but Paul kept things tight in the end.
