Sunrisers prevail in rain-hit game

On a frustrating evening with four rain stoppages, sensational death bowling and a cameo from Naman Ojha set up an eight-wicket win (Duckworth-Lewis method) for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla. This was the fourth consecutive loss for Daredevils on their home ground in this IPL.

Sunrisers gave away just 22 in the last five overs, restricting Daredevils to 143 for 7, before their own chase was shortened first to 117 off 15 overs, then 97 of 12 overs and finally 43 off five.

Daredevils nearly clawed back into the game, as Rahul Shukla dismissed Aaron Finch with Sunrisers still needing 18 off 10 but Naman Ojha and David Warner ensured there were no further hiccups. Warner put away a full toss and Ojha followed it up with a slog over deep midwicket that brought the equation to six off the last over. Ojha's six off Laxmi Shukla took Sunrisers home with four balls to spare.

Daredevils in many ways ended up paying the price for steadfastly pigeon-holing two of their best batsmen this season as finishers. They were a comfortable 87 for 2 in the ninth over when Mayank Agarwal was dismissed but Daredevils held Duminy back and sent Laxmi Shukla in at No. 5. The allrounder added 55 runs with Dinesh Karthik but the innings struggled for impetus, specially after the first, hour-long rain break. Both Karthik and Shukla fell in the 17th over, leaving Duminy and Kedar Jadhav 18 balls between them to give Daredevils some sort of a finish. Unsurprisingly, they floundered against intelligent bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Dale Steyn.

Their ending - 11 runs off the last three overs - was in stark contrast to the sprightly start, a result of Kevin Pietersen's cameo in his first IPL appearance as an opener. Pietersen was hesitant early on and in danger of a being run-out a few times, but looked to be getting his groove back when he punched a square drive off Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his first boundary.

After Quinton de Kock fell to Steyn, Pietersen took charge, smacking a six and four each off Karn Sharma and Moises Henriques in successive overs to guide Daredevils to their best Powerplay period of the tournament. Against Mishra, though, he mistimed a drive straight to cover, giving the bowler his 100th IPL wicket.

Mayank Agarwal squandered a start leaving the rebuilding to Dinesh Karthik, who scored 39 off 30. Karthik kept the strike turning early on and made the most of a reprieve at fine leg to scoop Steyn for a six over the same region. He swatted Karan Sharma for a six and a four after the resumption of play but fell to a well-judged catch by Steyn at the long-off boundary.