Warner, Powell power DC past SRH

The Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the fiftieth game of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). The match was played in the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. David Warner was adjudged to be the Man of the Match.

Warner a true believer

Before the game, David Warner emphasized the importance of one of himself, Prithvi Shaw, or No. 3 Mitchell Marsh "scoring an 80, 90, or even a hundred if we can." Warner took it upon himself to deliver the goods with Shaw out due to illness and Marsh falling cheaply after Bhuvneshwar Kumar's wicket maiden to start the Capitals' innings.

His first ball was whacked through the covers, just missing getting to hand, but the rest of his innings was superbly judged. He got the ball rolling during a rare powerplay appearance for Umran Malik, assisting himself to three boundaries in a 23-run over.

Several crushing straight drives, leg-side swats for six off Malik and Kartik Tyagi, and a clean mow over long-on against Aiden Markram's offbreaks were among the highlights. The most amazing aspect of Warner's performance against Kumar was his split-second adjustments after changing his stance in readiness to switch hit; the ball was full outside leg (to a left-hander), but Warner played it like a right-hander to glide four to third.

That came on the first ball of the 19th over, and by the end of it, he'd climbed to 92 from 58, and was on his way to a century against his previous team. As Rovman Powell took over against Malik, no one in Delhi blue was more thrilled than Warner, who stood at the non-striker's end. During the innings break, Powell recounted Warner's advice: "'Listen, that is not how cricket plays,' he remarked at the start of the over when I asked if he wanted a single to try and achieve the hundred. I decided to smack it as hard and as far as I could, and I succeeded."

Powell drives Capitals

Powell's first IPL half-century put the cap on the Capitals' innings. He cleared the ropes six times on his way to 50 from 30 balls, demonstrating his ability to "smack it" as hard and as far as he could. The Jamaican has served a variety of roles for the Capitals, starting as high as No. 3 and finishing as low as No. 8. However, he claimed that he had asked Rishabh Pant for some time to prove what he could do at No. 5, and dutifully rewarded the management with his greatest score in nine innings.

Powell took a while to settle in, scoring 19 off 18 balls in the 16th over. By that point, he may have been out twice: a top-edged swipe at Sean Abbott eluded the returning Tyagi at short fine leg, and Kane Williamson then shelled a straightforward chance at mid-off, Malik the unfortunate bowler.

Powell took advantage of his reprieves by slaughtering Kumar - who had gone 1 for 4 from 15 balls up to that point - over deep square leg, then launching back-to-back sixes off Abbott, one of which sailed 104 meters over cover. When a smash down the ground appeared to pick out Markram at long-on on 41, the fielder misjudged the catch and palmed it over the rope, he probably should have been taken on the rope. He reached fifty with two more sixes and closed the innings with 4-4-4 off Malik, including creaming a 157 kilometers per hour ball over the covers, the fastest in this year's IPL.

Sunrisers make stumbling start

Williamson came into this match with questions about his strike rate, and those questions will only grow following another shaky performance, which included 4 off 11 and a fiddled catch behind against Anrich Nortje in the fifth over. With 199 runs from 10 innings in the IPL and a strike rate of 96.13, he has the lowest strike rate of any opener who has faced 200 balls in a season.

At halftime, Powell characterized the pitch as "quite good," and the Brabourne Stadium had already seen a greater score chased this season, with the Lucknow Super Giants reaching 211 with three balls to spare against the Chennai Super Kings in game seven. However, the Sunrisers' chances of a quick start were harmed by the early loss of Abhishek Sharma, and with Williamson requiring seven balls to get off the mark, his team limped to 35 for 2 at the end of the powerplay (a total boosted by Rahul Tripathi slashing the fourth and fifth balls of the sixth over for four).

The Sunrisers were 48 for 3 after nine overs, needing to score at more than 14 runs per over; and despite the best efforts of Nicholas Pooran and, to a lesser extent, Markram, who demonstrated what could have been achieved with a stronger platform, the rate scarcely dropped down from that point.