Du Plessis, Starc guide Delhi to win over Sunrisers

Visakhapatnam, March 30: Faf Du Plessis’ excellent fifty and Mitchell Starc’s five-wicket haul were the lead acts in Delhi Capitals’ comprehensive seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL match here on Sunday.
Du Plessis (50, 27b, 3×4, 3×6) added 81 runs with his opening partner Jake Fraser-McGurk (38, 32b) as the Capitals overhauled Hyderabad’s inadequate 163 all out in 16 overs, for their second win on the trot..
Once DC openers made a quick start off the block, the result was never in doubt, but their approach was vastly different..Du Plessis wound the clock back with some stunning shots, such as a straight six off Pat Cummins..
But at other end, McGurk was struggling for his timing, partly because of his exaggerated back-lift and partly because of his desire to hit all the ball out of the park..
However, his senior partner was willing to do the heavy-lifting and brought up his fifty in 26 balls.
The South African thus became the third 40-plus batter to score a 50 in the IPL after Adam Gilchrist and Chris Gayle..But the alliance was snapped when debutant leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari (3/42) dismissed Du Plessis, who departed after Wiaan Mulder took a brilliant running catch to the join the list of stunning catchers in the evening..The impressive 25-year-old Ansari, who once was a part of India Under-19 World Cup squad which also had Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan and Washington Sundar back in the day, soon got rid of McGurk and KL Rahul in quick succession to reduce DC to 115 for three in the 12th over but that was not even enough to create artificial excitement.
Abhishek Porel (34 not out, 18 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (21 not out, 14 balls) joined for a 51-run stand for the fourth wicket to push SRH to their second successive defeat in this IPL.
Earlier, Aniket Verma made a free-flowing 74 off 41 balls (5×4, 6×6) but their excessive aggression and five-wicket man Starc forced Sunrisers Hyderabad to settle for a woefully sub-par 163 all out.Aniket showed how to capitalise a smooth pitch with a wisely accelerated innings but there were not many takers for that route in the Sunrisers camp.
The Hyderabad side’s beginning itself was flawed, losing four wickets in the Power Play that earned them 58 runs. (PTI)