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Turning Point: Pant tears Thampi apart in 18th over

May 09, 2019 08:01 IST

Rishabh Pant

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant slammed two fours and two sixes in Basil Thampi's final over. Photograph: BCCI

Late fireworks from Rishabh Pant, who smashed 49 off 21 balls, helped Delhi Capitals chase 163 in the IPL Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Y S Rajashekara Reddy ACA-VCDA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, May 8, 2019.

It was a game of many dramatic moments and Delhi was the better team at the end.

Chasing 163, Delhi got off to a brilliant start as both openers, especially Prithvi Shaw, played with great intent and smashed the SRH bowlers to all corners of the ground. Shikhar Dhawan and Shaw completed a 50 run stand for the first wicket inside the powerplay.

 

Then SRH picked two quick wickets to put Delhi on the backfoot. Rashid Khan's double wicket maiden brought SRH back into the contest.

Till the 17th over, Delhi had posted 129 runs and lost five top-order batsmen.

When the game looked out of Delhi's reach, 21-year-old Pant once again turned the match's direction when he slammed two fours and two sixes in Basil Thampi's final over.

Thampi conceded 22 in the 18th over and it turned the game in Delhi's favour.

Although Pant was dismissed in the next over, he had taken Delhi closer to a win.

Keemo Paul got the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the innings with a boundary off Khaleel Ahmed to fire Delhi into Qualifier 2.

LAXMI NEGI