Starc’s five-for sets up Delhi Capitals’ emphatic win over SRH

Faf du Plessis’ 26-ball half-century powered Delhi Capitals’ chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

Mitchell Starc’s IPL fairytale continues. He returned to the league last season with Kolkata Knight Riders following an eight-year hiatus. It ended with a dream run on the podium.

Mitchell Starc rocked the Sunrisers Hyderabad batting line-up.
| Photo Credit:
K.R. DEEPAK

The Aussie pacer’s attempts to replicate that with the Delhi Capitals is off to a promising start following his maiden T20 fifer in DC’s thumping seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

Pat Cummins opted to set a target under a hot Vizag sun. SRH’s openers walked in wary of Starc’s ability to find early swing. The anxiety worked in DC’s favour with Abhishek Sharma caught well out by Vipraj Nigam’s throw in the first over.

Ishan Kishan tried to clear Starc on the offside but only managed to find Tristan Stubbs at deep backward point. Two balls later, a slow off-cutter from Starc lured local boy Nitish Kumar to play an ambitious shot that went to Axar Patel at mid-on.

Head, whose troubles against Strac are well documented, fell to his compatriot for the sixth time in eight innings when the ball grazed his gloves and sailed into Rahul’s.

Aniket Verma linked up with Heinrich Klaasen to mount a resurgence. In just his second game, his confident hitting allowed SRH to progress at a healthy rate and gave Klaasen breathing room at the other end.

Axar bore the brunt of Aniket’s blitz, giving away a boundary and four maximums, including one straight down the ground. The 23-year-old brought up his half century in just 34 balls. It took an athletic effort from Jake Fraser-McGurk at deep midwicket to stop the carnage which helped SRH to a respectable 163.

Faf du Plessis turned a largely orange looking arena for most part of the afternoon into a sea of blue as he smacked a 26-ball fifty to put DC firmly in control of the chase. Zeeshan Ansari, who replaced Simarjeet Singh in the SRH lineup, waged a lone battle with the ball with a three-for on debut, accounting for the DC top order.

But it only delayed the inevitable as the Capitals ended their short stint in Vizag with two wins in as many games.