Hyderabad beat Delhi by seven wickets to register their seventh win in nine matches and go top of the 2018 IPL standings on Saturday. On the other hand, Delhi, with their seventh defeat in 10 matches, were almost out of play-off contention.
Vijay Shankar dropped Yusuf Pathan on zero at a crucial stage, after which the power-hitter from Hyderabad scored 27 not out off 12 balls to dash Delhi's all hopes. Captain Kane Williamson held the SRH chase together with 32 not off 30 balls to help the team cross the line with one ball to spare.
Alex Hales, however, set the tone for the Hyderabad win with a 31-ball 44 and in one over bowled by Avesh Khan he hit four sixes to provide SRH with a big impetus in their chase at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Earlier in the day, after Shreyas Iyer decided to bat, Delhi's Prithvi Shaw once again proved his prodigious talent, this time against the best bowling unit of the season.
Having already drawn comparisons with all-time greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, Shaw scored his second fifty this season when he took a single off Shakib Al Hasan in the seventh over. In the previous over, he had hit three fours and a six off Siddarth Kaul, one of the form bowlers in this edition.
Shaw eventually departed for 65 off 36 balls and that dismissal was really against the run of play as the 18-year-old batsman found Kaul at short third-man off the bowling of Afghanistan star Rashid Khan. The 18-year-old hit three sixes and six fours during the course of his innings. He cuts and drives were breath-taking and pleasing on the eye. Some of his shots really put one in mind of the legendary Tendulkar.
Iyer contributed 44. He and Shaw added 86 for the second wicket. Delhi were looking good for a big score at one time at 95/1 in 10 overs but Rashid (2/23) weaved his magic thereafter and the visitors could only score 68 runs in the last 10 overs. At 163/5, they were at least 15-20 runs short and those runs cost them dear in the end.
