Hyderabad chase down Delhi to share IPL lead with Chennai
HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off their highest successful chase in this Indian Premier League and shared the overall lead with Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.
Kane Williamson and Yusuf Pathan led Hyderabad to 164-3 to beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets with one ball remaining. The Daredevils have won just three of their 10 games.
At Bangalore, spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh shared five wickets as Chennai Super Kings defeated the struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets.
Hyderabad and Chennai have seven wins, but Hyderabad has a game in hand.
Chasing 164 to win, Alex Hales (45) and Shikhar Dhawan (33) provided Hyderabad a confident start of 76 runs in nine overs. But Delhi should have got rid of Hales in the second over when Glenn Maxwell dropped a sitter in the deep.
Legspinner Amit Mishra clean-bowled both openers in successive overs but Delhi missed another opportunity when Pathan was also dropped in the deep by Vijay Shankar in the 18th over before he scored.
With 14 required off the last over, Pathan hit 2-6-4-1 off Dan Christian's first four deliveries, and Williamson finished off Delhi.
Williamson scored 32 not out and Pathan hit two sixes and two fours in 27 not out off 12 balls.
Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer opted to bat first and he (44) and Prithvi Shaw (65 off 36 balls) spearheaded them to 95-1 in 10 overs.
But Hyderabad struck back through legspinner Rashid Khan (2-23) to restrict Delhi to 163-5.
Left-hander Shaw mistimed a sweep and gave a simple catch at short third man, while Iyer flicked Siddarth Kaul to midwicket and was dismissed in the 16th over.
In Bangalore, Jadeja picked up 3-18 and Harbhajan took 2-22 to restrict the home side to 127-9.
Chennai reached 128-4 in 18 overs with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (31 not out) smashing three sixes off legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal in a final over costing 22 runs.
"On surfaces such as these, Jadeja bowls very well ... and so did we as a team," Dhoni said. "Identifying our death bowler before the knockouts is the only thing we're worried about and that's why we're making a few changes."
Parthiv Patel, playing his first game of the season, top-scored for Bangalore with 53 off 41 balls and Tim Southee's unbeaten 36 off 26 gave the total some respectability. No other Bangalore batsmen reached double figures.
AB de Villiers (1) returned after missing two games due to fever but lasted only four deliveries as the South African was stumped off the first delivery he faced against Harbhajan.
Jadeja clean-bowled captain Virat Kohli (8) off his first ball as the batsman tried to chop the left-arm spinner's arm ball but missed it completely.
Chennai's target was eased by some sloppy Bangalore fielding, with wicketkeeper Patel and Chahal dropping Dwayne Bravo (14 not out).
Ambati Rayudu (32 off 25) and Suresh Raina (25 off 21) added 44 runs for the second wicket before Raina was smartly caught by Southee at the boundary. Rayudu fell to legspinner Murugan Ashwin's first delivery.
Dhoni and Bravo shared a winning 48-run unbeaten stand to hand Bangalore its sixth defeat.
"Dropped catches don't help," said Kohli, whose team has only three victories.
"We know it's a tough road ahead. We need to win probably four out of five (matches). These situations bring the best out of us."
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