It seems Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje are as much at home in Dubai as they are bowling on the quintessential fast tracks back in South Africa. At least, their deliveries hammering the shoulder of the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters’ bats on Wednesday suggest so. They were putting up a show. They were out there to intimidate.
Delhi Capitals were resuming their IPL campaign for this year. But it felt like Rabada and Nortje had pressed the replay button from their last year’s exploits at the same ground. Venomous pace and disconcerting bounce off the pitch from the South African duo along with Avesh Khan pinned the SRH batters to the crease right through the innings as Kane Williamson’s side labored to a modest total of 134/9.
Capitals made use of the pace and bounce the Dubai pitch had to offer. SRH medium-pacers fell behind on that count as captain Rishabh Pant showed by disdainfully clearing the fence whenever Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed tried to bang it in.
With Pant unbeaten on 35 off 21 and Shreyas Iyer (47* off 41) finishing the job pulling Jason Holder for a six in front of square, Capitals walked past the target with eight wickets and 13 balls to spare. None of the four Capitals batters looked in trouble albeit Prithvi Shaw (11 off 8) and Shikhar Dhawan (42 off 37) fell trying to clear the boundary.
The gulf between the two teams was evident. And it reflects in the point table where Capitals are at the top and Sunrisers pitifully lie at the bottom.
Back of a length but fast, there was hardly any room for the SRH batters to flex their arms. Nortje breached 150 kmph on the speed gun several times and remained over 145 kmph through his spell to finish with 2/12 from four overs. Rabada backed him up and returned figures of 3/37.
There were a few desperate hoics that sailed over the fence. But those too had to do with the extra pace Rabada offered than the batters actually finding some timing going.
Capitals is an evolving team. There are more players who are yet to hit the peak of their cricketing prowess whereas the SRH batting is way too dependent on David Warner and Kane Williamson with a middle-order packed with Indian batsmen who have fallen by the wayside when it comes Team India’s scheme of things.
Nortje set the tone for the match when he had Warner hopping and lobbing a simple catch to Axar Patel at point off the third ball of the match. At 0/1, it was clear that the SRH batting lineup wasn’t going to get any respite from the thunderbolts served by the Capitals pacers. Axar’s evolution as canny left-arm spinner with figures of 2/21 only made it difficult for SRH to get going.
Pant ensured there was a pacer going from one end at all times. The scrap was real for SRH. When Axar deceived Williamson for the second time to end his knock of 18 off 26, which included two dropped chances, highlighted the ditch they were in.
It didn’t matter when Marcus Stoinis limped off the field with a dodgy hamstring after bowling 1.1 overs. For once, Ashwin had an off day but again when you have four bowlers on song, few blemishes tend to get covered up.