The Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers just keep doing the business time and again. Dale Steyn and co. were in ruthless form against the Delhi Daredevils as the Sunrisers posted a comfortable six-wicket victory in the fortress that is the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
The Surnisers bowlers were on top of the Daredevils batsmen right from the off, dismissing the away side for just 80 runs, before toppling the target with 6.1 overs remaining, as the home side finished on 81 for four.
The Sunrisers jumped to third in the points table with the win - their seventh in eleven games - while the Daredevils' slim hopes of sneaking into the playoffs have been shot by the huge loss.
It was not exactly easy street for the Sunrisers, as they laboured to the target, despite never really being in trouble of losing the plot.
Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel got the home side off to a decent start, with Dhawan in particular scoring a couple of nice-looking boundaries.
Dhawan (22, 16b, 4x4) looked to be on his way to another substantial score and with it giving the Surnisers an easy and quick victory to boost their nett run rate - a few shots through the offside were typically elegant - before Johan Botha got the wicket of the elegant left-hander.
Umpire Asad Rauf gave a dodgy lbw decision for the second time in the match, with the ball striking Dhawan's pads but replays suggesting the ball might have been heading down leg side.
Ashish Reddy then edged one to wicketkeeper Kedar Jadhav off Ashish Nehra, before the butterflies really began rumbling inside the Sunrisers stomachs with Jeevan Mendis dismissing Parthiv Patel - stumped by Jadhav.
Sunrisers skipper Kumar Sangakkara built a small and timely partnership of 17 runs with the impressive Darren Sammy (18, 20b, 1x6), who then took over once the former was dismissed to take the Hyderabad side home with a little over six overs remaining.
Earlier, everything that could go wrong went wrong for Delhi daredevils, as the Sunrisers bowling yet again came up trumps.
The home side's bowling attack has been by far the best in IPL 2013, and on Saturday, there were no signs of it being an off day for Steyn and the rest of the pack.
It's almost as if the Delhi Daredevils batsmen did not show up for what was really a must-win game.
Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag were circumspect at the start of the innings, and it was pounced upon by the Sunrisers fast bowlers Steyn and the excellent Ishant Sharma.
Jayawardene was the first to go, given lbw by Rauf off Ishant Sharma in the fourth over, when the Daredevils skipper was actually struck on the pads outside the line of off-stump.
Sehwag looked a shadow of his old self, playing out 17 deliveries for just eight runs, and it was just a matter of time before he was walking back to the pavilion.
The first delivery by Darren Sammy as a matter of fact - with the West Indian bringing out the dummy after castling Sehwag in the eighth over.
Unmukt Chand and David Warner tried to repair the damage, but Sangakkara brought back Steyn (two for 10) and it did the trick, with the South African pacer knocking out the off stump of the Indian youngster Chand (17, 24b, 3x4).
The third wicket of Chand fell an over after Hanuma Vihari dropped a sitter, which would have dismissed Warner off Amit Mishra, but the leg-spinner had the last laugh. Mishra bamboozled the Australian with a googly, with Warner (8 in 15) caught well out if the crease, allowing Parthiv Patel to whip off the bails.
It was just a procession of wickets after that -- Steyn, Thisara Perera and Darren Sammy picking up two wickets each -- as the Sunrisers bowlers dominated to dismiss the Daredevils for a paltry and embarrassing 80.
