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It was a clinical performance from current IPL 2021 table-toppers Delhi Capitals during their win over SunRisers Hyderabad. Despite losing the toss, it never looked like they were on the backfoot in any given stage of the match. Much of the credit for helping them hit the right note right from the start goes to Anrich Nortje who was given the first over of the match by their skipper Rishabh Pant.
The South African speedster did not disappoint and struck in the first over itself, dismissing the Hyderabad opener David Warner. In fact, Nortje produced a great spell of fast bowling during which he bowled the eight fastest balls recorded in IPL 2021. Three of these deliveries shattered the 150kmph mark on the speed gun.
Nortje clocked 151.71kmph, 151.37kmph, 150.21kmph, 149.97kmph, 149.29kmph, 149.15kmph and 148.76kmph during the match against SunRisers Hyderabad at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. The 27-year-old ended with impressive figures of 2 for 12 at a miserly economy rate of 3.00 producing as many as 14 dot balls.
Notably, this was only the second match for Nortje this season and he had played only one match for the franchise before the competition had to be postponed in May earlier this year. Such fiery was his spell that cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra cheekily remarked that Norje should be booked for overspeeding.
"Over-speeding ka challan kato #SeriousPace," he wrote alongside a picture of Nortje's figures recorded in the ongoing IPL 2021 edition.
Check out the tweet here:
Thanks to spells from Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, the Orange Army were restricted to a score of 134 for 9 in 20 overs. While Rabada bagged 3 for 27 from his 4 overs and was a bit expensive, left-arm spinner Axar Patel also chipped in with a couple of wickets to complete a superb bowling performance from the last year's runner-up.
In the run chase, the Capitals never looked to struggle and everyone got a start with Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan scoring 47* and 42 respectively. Pant also remained unbeaten on 35 as Capitals finished off the chase with more than two overs to spare. As a result of the win, DC have overtaken Chennai Super Kings to go to the top of the table with 14 points from 9 matches.