Vice-captain Faf du Plessis top-scored with a delightful 27-ball fifty as an all-round Delhi Capitals trounced Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to remain unbeaten in IPL 2025 at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
After Mitchell Starc’s incredible 5-35 and Kuldeep Yadav’s 3-22 helped DC bowl out SRH for 163 in their 18.4 overs, du Plessis was at his glorious best to hit three fours and as many sixes in his solid half-century coming at a strike-rate of 185.19.
He was well-supported by Jake Fraser-McGurk (38), KL Rahul (15), Abishek Porel (34 not out) and Tristan Stubbs (21 not out) as DC completed the chase with four overs to spare. For SRH, debutant leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari shined with 3-42 in his four overs.
Chasing 164, Fraser-McGurk began by slog-sweeping Abhishek Sharma for six, while Faf du Plessis pulled Mohammed Shami for a maximum. Even as Fraser-McGurk struggled to hold his shape and was dropped twice by Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins, du Plessis was at his fluent best – dealing in boundaries off Shami, Abhishek and Cummins, against whom his down the ground six made for an amazing watch.
After Fraser-McGurk played an uppish drive off Zeeshan Ansari for four, du Plessis brought up his fifty off 26 balls. But in the next over, the 81-run opening stand was broken by Ansari as du Plessis mistimed his slog to long-on, giving the young leg-spinner his first IPL wicket. Fraser-McGurk took over the attacking mantle by hitting Ansari for two fours and a six, before chipping it right back to the leg-spinner for 38.
Rahul’s life in DC colours began with a streaky boundary on his first ball, before majestically slog-sweeping and lofting Shami for six and four respectively. But Rahul was dismissed for 15 when he went far too across to sweep Ansari, but was castled around his legs and saw his leg-stump uprooted.
Porel took DC closer to win by whipping Abhishek for four, before clubbing and steering Ansari for six and four respectively. Stubbs lofted Harshal for four, before pulling and unfurling lofted drive off Wiaan Mulder for a brace of fours. Porel ensured DC got over the line by clubbing Mulder for a wonderful six.
Meanwhile, Nitish Rana’s batting blitz combined with a four-wicket haul by Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga led Rajasthan Royals to their first victory of this IPL season against Chennai Super Kings.
Rajasthan depended on a 36-ball 81 by Rana to post 182-9 after being invited to bat first at their second home in Guwahati.
Hasaranga then turned on the heat with his leg-spin to help restrict Chennai to 176-6 and a six-run win to bounce back from two losses in the T20 tournament.
The left-handed Rana put on 82 for the second wicket with Sanju Samson to lay the foundations.
Noor Ahmad broke the stand with the wicket of Samson, who is Rajasthan’s regular captain but playing only as a batsman due to an injury.
Rana reached his fifty in 21 balls and bludgeoned the bowlers with 10 fours and five sixes in his stay at the crease. Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin cut short Rana’s knock as he had the batsman stumped to check Rajasthan’s surge.
Stand-in-skipper Riyan Parag hit 37 off 28 balls before being bowled by Sri Lankan pace bowler Matheesha Pathirana. Pace spearhead Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Jofra Archer for a duck for his second wicket.
Noor and Pathirana both returned figures of 2-28.
In Chennai’s reply, Archer struck in the first over to have Rachin Ravindra caught behind for a duck as he celebrated his first wicket this IPL season.
Archer had a disastrous start to the tournament when he went for 76 in his four overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad for the league’s most expensive bowling figures ever.
Hasaranga struck with his first ball to send back Rahul Tripathi before skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad attempted to put the chase on track in his 63 off 44 balls.
Hasaranga claimed a wicket each in his next two overs including impact player Shivam Dube to dent the opposition chase but Gaikwad stood strong to reach his fifty. Hasaranga dismissed Gaikwad in his last over to return figures of 4-35.
Agencies
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