Delhi Capitals, led by Rishabh Pant, cruised to an 8-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 22. The Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and opted the bat, but were undone by a potent DC bowling unit and managed to put up only 134/9 in 20 overs.

In reply, the Delhi Capitals’ batsmen hardly broke any sweat to overhaul the target in 17.5 overs.

While DC lost Prithvi Shaw (11) cheaply, left-handed Shikhar Dhawan struck a calculated 42 off 37 balls to motor the team forward. During his stay in the middle, he hit six boundaries and a solitary six.

He was ably supported by Shreyas Iyer, who remained unbeaten on 47 off 41 balls. He hit two boundaries and as many maximums. After Dhawan’s dismissal, captain Pant, with 35 off 21 balls, made sure that his team crosses the finish line without losing any more wickets.

“We discussed that we had a good first phase, and we are happy to start the second phase this way. We said the same thing about focusing on the process and giving it 100% every day. It’s a good bowling performance because we thought 150-160 would have been a good total, so 130-something was a good score to restrict them to. We have one of the quickest bowlers in the world so I think they’re great assets to have,” Rishabh Pant said during the post-match presentation.

The Delhi Capitals’ pace attack did all the damage. Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada shared five wickets between them. While Nortje returned with figures of 2/12 in his stipulated 4 overs, Rabada ended with 3/37.

Other than them, spinner Axar Patel registered the figures of 2/21 in his stipulated overs.

As for Sunrisers Hyderabad, batting first, they could not build momentum and failed to put up a daunting total.

“We didn’t start well, didn’t register a decent partnership but never got any momentum, some good scores in the back-end, but pretty much 25-30 runs short. We did bowl well, we have defended modest scores in the past, but it wasn’t to be today which was a bit of a shame. It’s been a difficult campaign so far, but we need to enjoy our cricket and don’t put ourselves under pressure – they were excellent, they are both quality internationals, two of the best fast bowlers going around at the moment and they put us under pressure,” SRH captain Kane Williamson said.

“They got us into hard positions, perhaps if we hadn’t lost early wickets, we could have done differently, but Delhi were outstanding and played some smart cricket. We need to concentrate on the way we play and try to improve,” the captain said.