Finch powers Hyderabad to first win of season

Aaron Finch's quickfire 88 from just 53 balls helped Hyderabad beat Delhi by a narrow four-run margin to register their first victory in the Indian T20 league on Friday.

Hyderabad's openers, Finch and captain Shikhar Dhawan, got their side off to a solid start with a 56-run opening stand.

The duo clubbed eight boundaries in the first five overs, targeting every Delhi bowler. Dhawan, the more aggressive of the two, laid into Wayne Parnell in the fifth over, hitting him for two fours and a six.

Finch joined forces with David Warner after Dhawan's departure in the seventh over. The pair took a few overs to settle in and hit the occasional boundary.

Finch switched gears in the 15th over and hit Laxmi Ratan Shukla for a six and two fours. He then despatched Jaydev Unadkat for four successive boundaries in the 18th over.

The right-hander finished Hyderabad's innings in style and smashed a full toss, from Unadkat, over cow corner for six. In all, Finch hit eight fours and four sixes in his innings and helped Hyderabad post a sizeable 184 runs.

Delhi's batsmen, bolstered by the return of captain Kevin Pietersen, put on a solid show as well. Openers Quinton de Kock and Murali Vijay put on a 99-run opening stand and the rest of the batsmen also got starts. But they fell four runs short of winning their second game of the tournament.

"It's a nice, slow start to the tournament," Finch said, after winning the Man-of-the-Match award. "We remained positive and in this kind of format when we get on a winning streak it can last. The wicket we knew would be hard for the new batters and we made a conscious effort to bat long. It's T20, you can't win them all; as long as we can win them when it counts we're happy."

Dhawan said that the win would boost his side's confidence in the tournament.

"Finally we are off the mark, it's a great feeling to win and we needed it to boost our confidence. We knew we had the people and we just needed to click," Dhawan said. "It started off with a great partnership and Aaron and Warner took us through."