Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma took the fight to the Delhi Capitals as he got off to a blistering start, smoking three sixes and four boundaries in an unbeaten 42 off 19 balls, as they reached 67-0 at the end of the powerplay in their Tata IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad, on Tuesday evening.
The Capitals won the toss, chose to bowl and started well as just 15 runs came off the first two overs before the Sunrisers started picking up the rate, and it was the fifth over from Nitish Rana that went the distance, going for 20 runs after back-to-back sixes from Sharma over extra cover and long-on, and a six from fellow opener Travis Head, 23* off 17 (2x4; 1x6), also over long-on.
Capitals South African slower ball specialist Lungi Ngidi almost stemmed the flow of runs in the last over of the powerplay, as four runs came off his first five legitimate balls, but a wide gave Sharma an extra ball and he obliged by pumping the last ball of the powerplay back over the bowler's head for six.
MATCH REPORT TO FOLLOW....
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora (wk), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Harsh Dubey, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga.
Impact subs: R Smaran, Praful Hinge, Liam Livingstone, Dilshan Madushanka, Harshal Patel.
DELHI CAPITALS: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wkt), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (capt), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Nitish Rana, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact subs: Tripurana Vijay, Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Auqib Nabi.