Jake Fraser-McGurk, the young Australian sensation, played a blinder to give Delhi Capitals slim hopes of a miraculous chase. But the right-hander power-hitter proved to be an exception on a night dominated by left-handers.
Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, the southpaw spin twins, pulled things back to get the home team back in the Indian Premier League’s maiden game of the season here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. But Sunrisers’ leftie quartet of Travis Head, his partner at the top Abhishek Sharma, allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed and pacer T. Natarajan ensured Hyderabad broke into top two with a facile 67-run win.
Head’s and Abhishek Sharma’s sensational strokeplay fetched a whopping 125 runs – the highest-ever tally in the first six overs in T20 cricket history. Despite Kuldeep and Axar striking four times in the 18 balls, Shahbaz along with Nitish Kumar Reddy ensured Sunrisers ended the innings on a high to post a daunting 266 for seven.
It was Sunrisers’ third 250-plus total of the season, also the fourth-highest tally in IPL history. Head was red-hot right from the word go. He missed a heave off Khaleel Ahmed’s first ball but ever since he connected the next that sailed into the stands, Delhi Capitals was forced to watch the ball race into or fly over the rope.
While Head stormed to his fifty in the third over, off just 16 balls, Abhishek made the most of his limited strike by going after Kuldeep, introduced in the fifth over. The field-restriction period saw Head and Abhishek combining 13 fours and 11 sixes as Capitals could bowl just five dot balls. Shahbaz’ maiden fifty then ensured it didn’t lose the momentum despite Kuldeep and Axar’s exploits.
Fraser-McGurk then took a cue from his Capitals’ counterparts as he literally extended the previous night’s net session into a range-hitting exhibition to leave the Kotla spellbound. At the halfway stage, Capitals had notched up 138 on the board, with another left-hander at the crease.
However, Rishabh Pant, Capitals captain, was scratchy throughout, thus pegging Delhi back. Natarajan then wound up the tail to end with enviable figures of 4-1-19-4 and making it a night to remember for the left-handers.
