Delhi lost Phil Salt for a duck as he was caught behind off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Mitchell Marsh scored a brisk 25 off 15, but he was trapped lbw by T Natarajan. David Warner got into the 20s, but DC exploded in the eighth over, losing three wickets to Washington Sundar. Warner’s (21) sweep found the fielder, while Sarfaraz Khan (10) and Aman Hakim Khan (4) also perished attempting big strokes.
Axar and Manish Pandey (34 off 27) added 69 for the sixth wicket to stop the deluge of wickets. The former was knocked over by Bhuvneshwar with a brilliant yorker, while Pandey was run out attempting a tight run off a misfield. Bhuvneshwar ended with figures of 2/11, while Sundar finished with 3/28.
Chasing 145, SRH lost Harry Brook for 7 off 14 as he was knocked over by Anrich Nortje. Mayank Agarwal played well for his 49 before perishing to Axar. Rahul Tripathi (15 off 21) was then caught behind off Ishant Sharma. SRH also lost Abhishek Sharma (5), who was caught and bowled by Kuldeep Yadav. SRH skipper Aiden Markram (3) was then knocked over by Axar to leave his team reeling at 85/5.
Heinrich Klaasen (31 off 19) and Sundar (24 not out of 15) attempted a late fightback for SRH, but it was not enough. For DC, Nortje ended with 2/33, while Ishant and Kuldeep proved highly economical.
Speaking after winning the Player of the Match, Axar said, “I ordered for coffee and I left the glass like that, when three wickets fell in one over. Pandey and I discussed we need to take it as deep as possible.”
On the surface, he commented, “It was slow, the ball was coming off slowly. I felt that me and Kuldeep can tie up the batters on this surface, so it was enjoyable. I keep getting wickets in the form of knocking over batters but getting a wicket off the slower one (Mayank) was more enjoyable.”
--By A Cricket Correspondent
