IPL 2020: Rashid bowls Sunrisers to first win this season

Kane Williamson‘s brilliant finishing touch and yet another T20 masterclass by Rashid Khan took the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 15-run victory against Delhi Capitals, to ensure that inside the first fortnight of IPL 2020, every single team had points on the board.

Before this match, the Sunrisers were the bottom-placed team and the Capitals were on top of the table. While the table positions don’t mean that much so early into the tournament, the result showed how open this season is shaping up to be, with every team capable of beating every other.

The Sunrisers found a pitch suited to their style at the Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and their bowling attack – for so long a strength but rendered slightly ineffective early in this IPL – came to the fore.

Khan has long been one of T20 cricket’s best bowlers, but with teams largely opting to play him out carefully, his wickets count had dipped somewhat, though his economy rate has remained exceptional. Thanks to tight bowling upfront led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar though, the Capitals felt they had to attack Khan too.

In the event they neither managed to get runs off him, nor preserve their wickets. He took out Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, the heart of the Capitals’ top order, returning figures of 4-0-14-3.

Kumar, who had been wicketless in the two previous games, found seam movement and zip with the new ball, and ended with 2 for 25.

Warner and Bairstow start unlike Warner and Bairstow

When David Warner and Jonny Bairstow bat together, you expect fireworks more often than not. In this game, with the Sunrisers having beefed up their middle order by adding Williamson, the openers had greater freedom to attack.

However, the Capitals’ seamers bowled tight lines, denying the batsmen any room, and both Warner and Bairstow played more conservatively as a result. The powerplay brought only 38 runs, the second fewest ever for this pair.

While Bairstow didn’t achieve the fluency he is usually known for, Warner adjusted to the pace of the pitch – stopping on occasion and slower – soon after the powerplay and began finding more power and placement. He played smartly, waiting for the ball he could hit out. So even when an over had a sprinkling of dot balls, Warner ensured the run-rate didn’t sink.

Eventually, the opening stand grew to 77 at a healthy run-rate of 8.10. On a pitch where the par score was 160-170, that was a reasonable enough effort.

Williamson’s finishing kick

He had been brought in to beef up the middle order. He was supposed to provide stability in case the openers couldn’t take off. They didn’t exactly take off, but they did bat fairly deep, which rendered Williamson’s original role slightly moot.

However, he adjusted to that in the famously unfussed manner that he seems to approach most things in life – a chase, a tied World Cup final, a volcano eruption probably – and turned into the finisher that the Sunrisers lacked.

Without trying to muscle the ball away, Williamson played to his strengths: timing, placement, and wrists like steel. He manoeuvred the ball into gaps, he moved around in his crease to create angles, and he even drag-flicked a cover drive off Amit Mishra.

The leggie had been chiefly responsible for reining Sunrisers in during the middle period with the wickets of Warner and Manish Pandey.

Williamson finished on 41 off 26, out in the final over, far and away the best innings for Sunrisers on the night. IPL debutant Abdul Samad did his prospects no harm either with a cameo at the end that included a six over long-on. (ESPNCricinfo)