Washington Sundar. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
The incredible action continued in the Indian Premier League 2023 as Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad locked horns in Match 34 on Monday, April 24 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. DC captain David Warner won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket which has traditionally favoured the batters.
Things were going well for Delhi in the first innings as captain David Warner was at the crease batting on 21*(18) along with Sarfaraz Khan 10*(8) with the score on 57/2 after 7 overs. However, all the plans faded pretty quickly for the visitors as spinner Washington Sundar wreaked havoc with the ball in the eighth over.
The 23-year-old claimed three wickets in the second over of his spell to break the back of DC’s batting. Sundar first got the prized scalp of Warner on the second ball, who slog-swept a delivery, going down leg, straight to Harry Brook at deep backward square leg. Sarfaraz Khan turned out to be the second victim of Sundar on the fourth delivery, who top-edged a sweep shot straight to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the deep-backward square leg.
After DC lost their fourth wicket, Aman Hakim Khan walked to the crease and smacked a boundary on the first ball itself to get off the mark in style. However, Sundar had the last laugh as Khan once again tried to go big on the leg side on the last ball of the over but ended up getting a leading edge which went straight to Abhishek Sharma at cover.
The wicket marked the end of an action-packed over by Sundar which yielded three wickets for SRH. The 23-year-old was under fire for his below-par performances in the ongoing season. He got backing from the SRH head coach Brian Lara after their last game against CSK, who said that the management is patient with the all-rounder.
The Chennai-born cricketer repaid the faith shown by the management by finally picking his first wickets of IPL 2023. Courtesy of his game-changing spell, DC were left reeling at 91/5 after 13 overs with Axar Patel 11*(19) and Manish Pandey 16*(12) at the crease.