JP Duminy turned in a fine all-round performance to lead the Delhi Daredevils to a narrow four-run win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match at the YSR Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
Duminy struck 54 off 41 deliveries with five fours and two sixes as Delhi posted 167 for four before he captured career-best figures of 4-17 as Hyderabad were restricted to 163 for eight.
Delhi skipper Duminy was helped in his efforts with the bat by Shreyas Iyer with the opening batsman smashing 60 off 40 balls with three fours and five sixes
The 20-year-old Iyer, who’s previous best T20 score was just 40, shared in an impressive 78-run second-wicket stand with Duminy off 9.2 overs.
Duminy was content to play the supporting role during the partnership as Iyer reached his fifty, off just 32 balls, with back-to-back sixes off the bowling of legspinner Karn Sharma with his maiden T20 fifty including three fours and four sixes.
Delhi won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch with a fair amount of variable bounce.
Swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-21) struck the first blow for Hyderabad when he had Mayank Agarwal (1) caught at first slip before Iyer and Duminy took the score to 93 for one before the right-handed Iyer was outfoxed by a slower ball from seamer Praveen Kumar (1-38) and was caught in the covers off a leading edge.
Duminy upped his scoring rate, in the 15th over, when he struck two fours and a six off the bowling of medium-pacer Ravi Bopara and he reached his fifty, off 39 balls, with a six off the bowling of compatriot Dale Steyn (1-27). – supersport.com
MORKEL HELPS KKR TO ANOTHER VICTORY
Morne Morkel took 2-27 before a sixth-wicket partnership of 95 runs between Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan enabled the Kolkata Knight Riders to trounce the Kings XI Punjab by four wickets in their IPL match at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
KKR, chasing 156 runs to win after they had won the toss and asked their hosts to bat, got off to an inauspicious start, losing their first five wickets for 60 runs.
Robin Uthappa survived an early scare in the first over of the innings, almost run-out, but eventually won a foot-race against Sandeep Sharma.
But in the third-over Sharma got his man, trapping Uthappa in the crease.
However, the quickie had more tricks up his sleeve, claiming the wickets of Manish Pandey, Gautam Gambhir and Ryan ten Doeschate off his allotted spell, his figures reading 4-1-25-4. Somewhere in-between Thisara Perera chipped in with the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav and KKR were in a tad of trouble.
But the Kings XI were soon on the back foot as Russell and Pathan put pedal to the metal.
Mitchell Johnson was not having a good day at the office. The Australian quick was uncharacteristically expensive as his 3.5 overs cost 41 runs.
You live by the sword and die by the sword, and Russell perished by his own audacity.
Going for one big hit too many he was bowled neck-and-crop by Johnson with the penultimate delivery of the innings.
But the man from the Caribbean had smashed 66 off 36 balls which included nine fours and two huge sixes, which earned quite a few air miles.
Still there at the death was Pathan on 28. – supersport.com
