Delhi Capitals reach IPL 2020 final, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs in Qualifier 2

Delhi Capitals finally produced the performance they had been searching for in the playoffs as they crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs to reach the Indian Premier League 2020 final on Sunday. This is the first time in their 13-year history that DC have made it to the IPL final.

DC rode on an all-round performance from Marcus Stoinis and a swashbuckling half-century from Shikhar Dhawan to book a clash with Mumbai Indians in the final on November 10.

Needing 190 for victory, DC restricted SRH to 172 for 8 in 20 overs with Stoinis and Kagiso Rabada starring with the ball in their first win over the David Warner-led 2016 champions this season.

Rabada actually started the damage by getting rid of David Warner in the second over of the run chase after which Stoinis struck twice in the 5th over to put SRH on the back foot in the powerplay.

But just like in their last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, they fought back through Kane Williamson and Jason Holder to make a fist of the run chase.

Williamson and Holder, who was promoted up the batting order, added 46 runs for the fourth wicket which kept them in the hunt till the 12th over but their efforts couldn't produce the result they were looking for as Axar Patel sent back the West Indies captain.

Williamson and young Abdul Samad then gave DC the chills with their quickfire 57-run partnership for the 5th wicket. But all hopes of a comeback ended when Stoinis sent the New Zealand skipper packing for 67 (45 balls) in the 17th over. Samad also played a good



hand of 33 off 16 but the target proved to be too big in the end for them.

Rabada bagged 4 for 29 from 4 overs while Aussie all-rounder Stoinis returned superb figures of 3 for 26 to cap off an amazing night with both bat and ball.

Earlier, Delhi Capitals posted a challenging 189 for 3 in 20 overs thanks to 2 big partnerships between Shikhar Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, and Shimron Hetmyer.

Dhawan and his new opening partner Marcus Stoinis added 86 runs in less than 9 overs before he stitched a quickfire 52-run stand with Hetmyer for the third wicket before getting in the penultimate over.

Dhawan top-scored with 78 off 50 balls, his 41st half-century in the IPL, while Hetmyer remained unbeaten on 42 off 22 balls. Stoinis contributed with 38 off 27 balls at his new batting position, which was occupied by the out-of-form Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane before this game.

The change in strategy worked wonders for DC as Stoinis took the SRH bowling to the cleaners in the powerplay before Dhawan took charge of the innings. He also completed 600 runs for the season during his knock, thus, becoming only the second batsman after Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul to achieve the feat.

Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma and Jason Holder managed to bag a wicket each for SRH but the failure of the bowlers to contain the flow of runs in the first 10 overs eventually led to their downfall in the match.

This was DC's second win in an IPL playoff clash after 2019, both of which have come against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.