Delhi Daredevils’ captain Jean-Paul Duminy led from the front with a brilliant all-round display as they pipped Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs in a thrilling Indian Premier League cricket match in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
Duminy first smashed 54 off 41 balls as Daredevils scored a decent 167 for four and then chipped in with four wickets as visitors kept their nerves in the crucial stages of the nail-biting contest to restrict Sunrisers to 163 for eight and record their second successive win at the ACA-VDCA Stadium.
Needing just 10 runs off the last over with Ashish Reddy and Karn Sharma at the crease, Nathan Coulter-Nile got the former run-out in the second ball of the over.
Two balls later, with Hyderabad needing seven runs from two deliveries, Karn went for a huge hit towards the point boundary but fielder Mayank Agarwal went back to the edge of the rope, leapt up and effected a goalkeeper like save as he parried the ball back in play saving what looked like a sureshot six.
Mayank's superb save made all the difference in the end and last ball of the match resulted in Sharma getting out, handing Delhi their second consecutive win.
Comfortably placed at 110 for three in 15 overs, the Sunrisers lost Naman Ojha, Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan in space of seven deliveries.
Duminy dismissed Bopara and Morgan with the fourth and sixth ball of the 17th over to tilt the match completely in Delhi's favour.
But some good batting by Reddy (15) and Karn (19) made sure that the match went down to the wire.
Coulter-Nile, Angelo Mathews and Imran Tahir took wicket apiece. Duminy accounted for the top order, seeing off dangerous David Warner (28), Shikhar Dhawan (18), top scorer Ravi Bopara (41) and Eoin Morgan (1).
Earlier, the Daredevils lost opener Mayank (1) in the third over with Bhuvneshwar Kumar striking early for the Hyderabad outfit.
But Iyer and Duminy made sure there are no further damage early on, as the duo put on 78 runs together for the second wicket to steer the team to a competitive total.
Shreyas came up with three boundaries and five sixes during his 40-ball knock. He hit two sixes of successive balls bowled by leggie Karn in the 10th over of the Delhi innings.
Duminy was more guarded during his innings that came of 41 deliveries and was studded with five fours and two sixes.
Medium pacer Praveen Kumar gave the much-needed breakthrough to the Sunrisers by seeing off Iyer in the 12th over, and had a great chance of taking another one with the last ball of the same over.
Duminy pounced on every lose ball that came his way, churning out 15 runs off Bopara's over to take the Delhi outfit to 121 for two at the end of 15th over.
However, pacer Dale Steyn, who after a three-match wait was finally included in the playing XI, replacing Trent Boult, justified his selection by dismissing his dangerous South African teammate to bring the Sunrisers back into the game.
Bhuvneshwar (1/21) was the pick of the bowlers who ended with an economy rate of less than six per over. Besides Bhuvneshwar, Steyn, Praveen and Reddy all picked up a wicket each.
