Williamson-Dhawan stroll past Pant’s shenanigans

There are some days where you just sit back and wonder, how could an innings of such class and precision, that young Rishabh Pant (128 off 63 balls) displayed today against the best bowling attack in the tournament. This was the case today though as an equally pristine and swashbuckling combo of Shikhar Dhawan (92 off 50 balls) and skipper Kane Williamson (83 off 53 balls) eased past Delhi Daredevils 5-187 with nine wickets still in hand.

The win means Sunrisers Hyderabad storm into the Playoffs of the Vivo IPL 2018 with18 points in eleven matches, and subsequently, knock the hosts Delhi out of the reckoning. however, Delhi wouldn’t have even made 187 if not for a display of brutal hitting by young Rishabh Pant.

Delhi had been reduced to 2-21 by Shakib Al Hasan (2-27) when Pant walked to the crease. 2-21 soon became 3-43 when skipper Shreyas Iyer (3 off 8 balls) got involved in a horrendous mix-up with Pant to leave Delhi in dire straits. Pant then took center-stage as he plummeted the Sunrisers bowling to all corners of the Feroz Shah Kotla. Pant was most severe on Kaul (0-48) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who conceded 44 runs in his last two overs.

Pant en-route to 128 off 63 balls, became the second youngest batsmen to score an IPL hundred, below Manish Pandey, who announced himself to the world with a breathtaking hundred in 2009. Pant, however, will also have bear the ignominy of being the highest individual scorer to end up on the losing side.

Match Summary: Delhi Daredevils (5-187, Rishabh Pant 128*, Shakib 2-27) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (1-191, Dhawan 92*, Williamson 83, Harshal Patel 1-32) by nine wickets.