Hyderabad post 162/8 against Delhi in Eliminator

Visakhapatnam, May 8 (IANS) A collective batting effort helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) post a fighting 162/8 against Delhi Capitals in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Wednesday.

Dlehi bowlers too did a good job to restrict their opponents at a modest total, thanks to Keemo Paul and Ishant Sharma, who bagged three and two wickets, respectively.

Put into bat, last year's runners-up Hyderabad were off to a decent start as thier scorecard read 31 for no loss in the first three overs with opener Martin Guptill (36 off 19) hammering Trent Boult for 15 runs in the third over.

However, Ishant drew the first blood in the next over, dismissing opener Wriddhiman Saha (8) who holed out to Shreyas Iyer at mid-off.

Manish Pandey (30 off 36) then added 25 runs with Guptil to take their side past the 50-run mark. However, the partnership didn't last long as leggie Amit Mishra struck to send back a dangerous looking Guptill in the seventh over.

Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson and Pandey then tried to anchor the innings but their slow stand saw their side placed at 71/2 after 10 overs. The duo added 34 runs before Paul came up with the breakthrough, accounting for the wicket of Pandey.

Ishant then castled Williamson, leaving Hyderabad struggling at 111/4 in 15.5 overs. Vijay Shankar and Mohammad Nabi then chipped in with valuable knocks of 25 and 20, respectively, to take Hyderabad to 147 runs before the former fell in the 19th over. Nabi and Shankar hit some lusty blows towards the end to help Hyderabad post a fighting total.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/8 in 20 overs (Martin Guptill 36, Manish Pandey 30; Keemo Paul 3/32) vs Delhi Capitals