Iyer hits 43 but Sunrisers restrict Delhi to 129/8

Sunrisers Hyderabad dished out a superb bowling effort to restrict hosts Delhi Capitals to a lowly 129 for eight in an Indian Premier League match at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium here Thursday.

Sunrisers bowlers exploited the conditions well, making life difficult for the hosts, who simply failed to get going right from the start on a slow wicket.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer tried to anchor the innings with a steady 41-ball 43 but he didn't get support from the other end. It would have been more embarrassing for Delhi, if not for the cameos from Chris Morris (17 off 15) and Axar Patel (23 not out off 13).

The pace-spin combination of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Nabi gave Sunrisers a good start, restricting Delhi to 19 for one in first four overs after the visitors won the toss and elected to field.

After conceding a first ball boundary, Bhuvneshwar came back to clean up Prithvi Shaw in the third over.

Skipper Iyer then deposited one at the stands after Siddarth Kaul was introduced into the attack, while Shikha Dhawan hit a four with a sweep shot off Nabi.

But another sweep shot proved costly as Nabi had Dhawan caught at short fine leg by Sandeep Sharma as Delhi slumped to 36 for two after the end of the powerplay.

A lot was expected from Rishabh Pant but he too departed just after time-out in the 10th over. Trying a inside out shot, he was holed out at long off by Deepak Hooda as Nabi completed his spell with impressive figures of 4-0-21-2.

Sandeep Sharma then bamboozled Rahul Tewatia with a knuckle ball as Delhi slipped to 61 for four in 11 overs.

In the 14th over, Manish Pandey took a superb catch at point to remove Colin Ingram off Kaul's ball as Delhi lost half their side for 75.

Chris Morris blasted two fours to give some momentum to Delhi's innings but Rashid Khan got rid off Iyer, who tried to sweep across the line and ended up being bowled as Delhi were reduced to 93 for six.

With three overs to go, Morris sent Sandeep Sharma over the mid-wicket area to take Delhi across the 100-mark.

Once Morris was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar in the 19th over, it was upto Axar Patel to take the score to some respectability and he tried his best, smashed a four and a last-ball six to take Delhi close to 130-run mark.