Sunrisers Hyderabad’s win vs Delhi Daredevils a ‘perfect team performance’: Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) notched up an impressive win vs Delhi Daredevils (DD) in an IPL 2018 game in Hyderabad and Bhuvneshwar Kumar praised the batsmen for getting them over the line.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) lethal bowling has been their saving grace in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018. Each time they have been restricted to a low total, SRH’s bowlers came to their rescue. (REPORT)

Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey running between the wickets during an IPL 2018 match against Delhi Daredevils in Hyderabad on Saturday.(PTI)

Against Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Saturday, it was different. DD’s batsmen gave SRH a 164-run target on a slow wicket and the job looked tough. (HIGHLIGHTS) (SCORECARD)

SRH had failed to chase targets above 150 since the 2016 IPL, with 180 vs Kings XI Punjab in 2016 being their previous best chase.

SRH, however, kept their chin up under pressure with the likes of Alex Hales (45), Shikhar Dhawan (33), Williamson (32*), Manish Pandey (21) and Yusuf Pathan (27*) contributing at crucial junctures to take SRH to the top of table with 14 points from nine games.

“The win against DD was important because in the last three or four matches we won because of our bowling. In this match, batsmen won us the game. This is a perfect team performance where the batsmen and bowlers all are performing,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said after the match.

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The fast bowler returned from a back problem after three matches and gave 33 runs in four overs. He added that SRH recovered well after conceding 95 runs in the first 10 overs.

“There was not much swing happening. After conceding 95 runs in the first 10 overs, we thought that it was not the end. We pulled back in the last 10 overs and gave only 68 runs,” he said.

‘Fielding cost us the game’

Like the SRH bowlers, their DD counterparts kept a close check on the rival batsmen as the match was decided in the last over. But they dropped crucial catches and that cost them the game, according to DD’s assistant coach Pravin Amre.

While Yusuf Pathan was dropped by Vijay Shankar in the 18th over while batting on 0, Alex Hales was dropped by Glenn Maxwell in the second over while batting on 9. There were a couple of other catches as well in the course of the game.

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“It is because of our fielding we lost the match. The saying goes catches win matches and that happened today. Dropping catches hurt us today as after Hales was dropped in the powerplay they managed to get 61 in the first six overs. After Manish Pandey got out we had them under pressure. We had the opportunity but we fielded poorly,” Amre said.

“Our boys have really worked hard on their fielding. That’s where it hurts the most as the missed catches were not so difficult ones.”