Mandeep struggles against swing; Warner returns to haunt Hyderabad and Pant turns every Shreyas delivery into half volley

Delhi Capitals brought on Mandeep Singh for Prithvi Shaw and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the opportunity to play a cat and mouse game with the replacement opener before having him in the bag. A sharp outswinger carried the ‘good evening’ message and Mandeep, a tad fidgety, left it at the last moment. Kumar picked the uneasiness and decided to tease the batsman with swing. A couple of inswingers beat the bat and hit the pad, as Mandeep looked cluless. His prey nicely set up, Kumar bowled an outswinger, as if he had almost pre-empted the unconvincing prod that Mandeep would offer. The ball actually held its line and the outside edge went to the wicketkeeper. Mandeep was put out of his misery, but DC had a poor start. Their opening experiment failed.
– Shamik Chakrabarty 
Señor Rishabh @ tappa bar
Maidan cricketers have a unique term to rave about a batsman’s ability to meet the ball at the bounce. “Usko tappa milta hai,” they say in awe when speaking about those blessed batters who have it in them to shift around the crease or dance down the track to take a spinner’s ball on half-volley, negate the tweak imparted and score the maximum. Rishabh Pant seemed to be getting the tappa against SRH’s Anil Kumble lookalike-spinner Shreyas Gopal. Calculative and crafty, the DC skipper knew who he would be targeting today. A left-hander taking on a leggie was a no-brainer. At the start of the over, Pant had 4 runs from 11 balls. After facing 4 balls from Gopal he had 26 runs from 15 balls.
Rishabh Pant. (Source: iplt20.com)
Wherever Gopal pitched, Pant would either lunge, jump or stretch and reach to catch the ball on the bounce. One six flew over the mid-wicket fence, other two over long off and extra cover boundary. Leg, middle or off, Pant connected everything. It seemed even if Gopal pitched at 11 yards, Pant would have sprinted and taken the ball on half-volley. But on the final ball of the over, Gopal came with a delivery that foxed Pant. It was a full-toss, outside off, that Pant was outplayed on. You can’t get tappa for a full toss.
– Sandeep Dwivedi
Obi-Warner gets his revenge
It’s not known if David Warner had circled this match after the IPL schedule was released, but this was a grudge game and the Aussie couldn’t afford to fail. For so long, Warner was the fulcrum of Sunrisers Hyderabad, someone who led them to their only IPL title yet, in 2016. The relationship between him and the franchise turned sour last year, when he was sacked as Sunrisers captain before being unceremoniously dumped as a player. “Last year, it hit me when I lost the captaincy in the Indian Premier League,” Warner told The Brett Lee podcast a few months ago.
David Warner. (Source: iplt20.com)
dint of his reputation and a fine T20 World Cup last year, he bagged a Rs-6.25 crore contract with Delhi Capitals this term and the Sunrisers game was payback time. Steely determination oozed, through the clobbering of Umran Malik, a fierce straight hit against Sean Abbott and an imperious switch-hit off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He berated himself for failing to put away a full-toss. He dived full-length to reach a delivery wide outside the off stump. He celebrated Rovman Powell’s half-century and egged him on to go for more. It didn’t matter that Powell’s last over pyrotechnics denied him a hundred. Warner revelled in his statement knock, 92 not out off 58 balls.
– Shamik Chakrabarty
Toss is Kane’s heel turn
Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. (Source: iplt20.com)
Kane Williamson’s toss form and his batting form are inversely proportional at the moment. On Thursday, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain won his ninth toss, in ten games, and yet again, he got out cheaply. Williamson so far has scored 199 runs in ten games at a strike rate of a shade over 96, opening the innings. It could be a matter of concern, as the tournament nears its business end. Today, an Anrich Nortje delivery undid him, Williamson tentatively poking it to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. Nortje went on a f-pump overdrive. For Williamson, it marked the end of a miserable stay at the crease, on a day when his predecessor at the franchise starred for Delhi Capitals.
– Shamik Chakrabarty