IPL 10: Kane charge hurts Delhi

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad sewed up their fourth straight win at home, beating the Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs in the Indian Premier League-10 on Wednesday night.

The visitors were in the game till the 10th over when they lost their second wicket after a 71-run stand. Thereafter they continued to play catch up despite a fine 42 by Sanju Samson.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Mohammed Siraj became the 13th from Hyderabad to play in the IPL and sent down an eventful first over — a difficult chance off the first ball, three boundaries and the wicket of Sam Billings.

The 23-year-old also bagged Samson’s prize wicket.

Earlier, Kane Williamson smashed an energetic 89 while Shikhar Dhawan hit a scintillating 70 as the hosts galloped tp 191/4 after making first use of the wicket. Chris Morris took all the wickets to fall.

Playing his first match of this season’s IPL, Kiwi Kane went all out after a sedate start as he crashed six boundaries and five sixes in his 51-ball knock.

It took a brilliant diving catch from Shreyas Iyer at deep mid-wicket to get rid of him. That ended a 136-run partnership for the second wicket — the second highest stand for the Sunrisers after the 137 raised by Dhawan and David Warner against the Gujarat Lions at Rajkot last year.

Dhawan danced his way through a 50-ball innings that was decorated with seven fours and a six. The left-hander fell trying to force the pace, in the penultimate over. He was caught by Angelo Mathews at deep square leg off Morris.

The hosts began on a slow note, inching their way to just 39/1 after the power play period of six overs. Williamson soon gave the charge, clobbering successive sixes off Mathews in the seventh over that yielded 16 runs. From the other end, Dhawan began to drill in drives and pulls as the scoreboard picked up pace.

Later, Williamson even went down on his knee to lift fast bowler Zaheer Khan to the fine leg fence. He even pulled a Pat Cummins delivery from the off-side into the stands behind mid-wicket to stamp his authority.

Williamson went wild after the 10th over. He leaned into shots that sailed into the stands, leg-spinner Amit Mishra being the sufferer. The Kiwi’s impressive bat speed was too brisk for the baffled bowlers who didn’t quite know where to pitch for the marauding batsman.

The Sunrisers went into the match with two changes — Williamson replaced Afghanistan spinner Mohammed Nabi while local fast bowler Mohammad Siraj came in place of Barinder Sran.