Sunrisers’ Washington comes up with 'Sundar' show against Delhi

Washington Sundar is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of DC’s Aman Hakim Khan. Pic/AFP

Off-spinner Washington Sundar (4-0-28-3) finally got into his wicket-taking act while swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-11-2) was at his canny best as Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted Delhi Capitals to a modest 144-9 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Monday.

Having gone wicketless in his first six matches, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder swung the momentum in SRH way by dismissing three DC batters in his second over.

At the time of going to press, SRH were 46-1 in eight overs.

Skipper David Warner, who played quite a number of matches at this ground while playing for SRH, decided to bat first and soon realised the ball was not rolling in their favour. They lost two wickets in the Powerplay. Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent back Phil Salt with his second ball with the batter edging to wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen and in his first two overs the former Indian pacer conceded just two runs.

Marsh starts strongly

Things looked good for DC as one-drop Mitchell Marsh started strongly. The Aussie struck four fours off left-arm seamer Marco Jansen - two on the leg side and two on the off. However, his 15-ball 25 ended when he fell to the other left-arm seamer, T Natarajan, playing down the wrong line to be LBW. SRH had to seek DRS after umpire J Madanagopal rejected the appeal.

Bowling his second over, Sundar snapped up Warner, whose slog sweep was held in the deep by Harry Brook off his second ball. Two balls later, Sundar took his second wicket by dismissing Sarfraz Khan whose top edge was held by Bhuvneshwar. DC slumped to 62-5 in the last ball of Sundar's second over as Aman Khan went for a wild shot. Sundar had wickets with his second, fourth and sixth deliveries.

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Manish Pandey and Axar Patel resurrected the DC innings. The left-handed Patel, in his own flamboyant style, piled up useful runs while Pandey gave him steady company. Patel, who of late has come good with the willow, hit three successive fours off leg spinner Mayank Markande to shore up DC total. Bhuvneshwar, who was back at his best with his variations, broke the dangerous Patel-Pandey stand of 69 runs by cleaning up the former with a yorker-length delivery.

Three run-outs

Sundar continued his good day in the field as he ran out Pandey (34, 27 balls) in the 19th over and DC could muster a decent total in the end. There were as many as three runs outs in DC innings.

Out-of-form Prithvi Shaw was dropped. In the last few matches, the Mumbai opener had been playing as an Impact player for DC. However, his Mumbai teammate Sarfaraz made a return to the team, but lasted only nine balls.