Take the game deep, and any equation, even if it looks unlikely, becomes possible. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, reeling from the losses of David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan a little too early for their comfort, did just that, scratching their way in the middle overs, and refusing to lie down and play dead to the Delhi Daredevils, and just like that we had another cliff-hanger of a contest in IPL 2015.
At 129/6, when Ravi Bopara (41. 30b, 1x4, 3x6) and Eoin Morgan fell in the same over to the wicket-taking machine who goes by the name of JP Duminy (3-0-17-4), SRH looked done, needing 39 from three overs with just four wickets in hand.
However, Karn Sharma (19, 10b, 2x6) and Ashish Reddy (15, 8b, 1x4, 1x6) had other ideas, with the former hitting the most-of-the-time unhittable Imran Tahir for two sixes, and the latter then smashing a four and a six off Angelo Mathews to make it 10 from the last over.
Nathan Coulter-Nile, though, is an outstanding T20 bowler, and the Aussie kept his calm to win the Daredevils the game, with a little help from some outstanding fielding from Mayank Agarwal, who prevented a six with a jump and a pat down of the ball back onto the field of play.
The Daredevils have built up a bit of momentum now with their second win in as many matches, and this one was more about their bowling than that brute power from the blades of Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews.
Choosing to bat first on that sticky wicket in Vizag, the Daredevils could not quite fly out of the blocks as the excellent Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-21-1) dismissed Mayank Agarwal, who had scored a match-winning half-century in the previous match.
JP Duminy (54, 41b, 5x4, 2x6) and Shreyas Iyer (60, 40b, 3x4, 5x6) took their time get settled at the crease, and then Iyer decided to take charge, smashing sixes at will en route to his first ever IPL half-century.
Iyer's quick knock gave the Daredevils the momentum needed in their innings, while also allowing Duminy to find his touch, with the DD skipper then smashing a few himself towards the second half of the innings to set up that final five-overs charge.
SRH got themselves back in the game, though, with two wickets in two balls – first Duminy castled by the returning Dale Steyn, playing his first match this season, and then Yuvraj holing out in the deep with Warner taking one of the catches of the tournaments, timing his jump to absolute perfection to hang onto a peach.
Those two wickets kept the Delhi Daredevils to 167/4 in their 20 overs, making the Sunrisers the favourites to knock them down, as long as one of Warner or Dhawan caught fire.
It was all going according to plan as well with the two left-handed openers ensuring no wickets fell in the first six Powerplay overs, with Warner (28, 20b, 4x4) unleashing four fours in the sixth over to take the score to 50.
However, first ball after the Powerplay, Dhawan (18, 18b, 3x4) played down the wrong line and was bowled by Duminy and Warner got a leading edge back to the bowler while trying to work it around to the onside.
Just like that the momentum was gone and KL Rahul and Ravi Bopara, sent in at No.3, was given the rebuilding job. They were doing that well enough, with Rahul hitting the odd boundary, but that required run rate kept mounting and with it the pressure, which eventually told on the batsmen.
Rahul (24, 21b, 2x6) fell to Mathews in the 13th over, with the ball thumping legstump as he walked across, before Naman Ojha (12, 10b, 1x4) also fell without doing enough.
Duminy then ended all hopes of an SRH victory, as Bopara, who had given them a sliver of hope bringing the equation down to 42 in 23 balls, holed out at long-off, before Eoin Morgan, so disappointing again, was castled by the offspinner.
SRH eventually finished on 163 for eight in their 20 overs, five runs short of their target to give the Delhi Daredevils another win in IPL 2015.
