IPL 7: Sunrsiers restrict Daredevils to 143 for 7

NEW DELHI: Delhi Daredevils withered away a good foundation to post a modest 143 for seven against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a rain-interrupted Indian Premier League match on Saturday.
Sent into bat, Dinesh Karthik made 39 off 30 balls with the help a four and two sixes, while skipper Kevin Pietersen made a quickfire 35 off 19 deliveries before giving away his wicket.He laced his knock with fours boundaries and two huge hits over the fence.
The struggling hosts lost wickets at regular intervals and could only manage 22 in the last five overs.
Delhi lost Quinton de Kock (7) in the third over. During his 12-ball stay at the wicket the South African looked nervy and got out in a timid way when he struck a Dale Steyn (2/20) length ball straight to Lokesh Rahul at cover.
Pietersen's decision to promote himself up the order in place of opener Murali Vijay, who was dropped for Saturday's match, turned out to be a good move as he looked in great touch during his quickfire knock.
Pietersen, who has found it tough to get going so far in this IPL, looked in good touch. He opened up his arms by hitting consecutive boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The former England player then welcomed leg-spinner Karn Sharma with a six over and a four to make his intentions clear.
Soon after, he clobbered Moises Henriques for a six over long-on and followed it up with a four straight past the bowler as Delhi reached 52 runs in six overs.
But leg-spinner Amit Mishra (2/23), introduced into the attack in the seventh over, turned the momentum in favour Hyderabad by removing dangerman Pietersen, who happened to be his 100th wicket of IPL.
Pietersen gave Mishra the charge and tried to loft the bowler over the off side only to mis-time it and give a straight forward catch to opposition captain Shikhar Dhawan at cover.
An over later, Mishra scalped his second victim of the day by dismissing Mayank Agarwal (25), who was holed out to David Warner at deep mid-wicket.
Karthik and Laxmi Ratan Shukla then joined hands and shared 30 runs off 26 balls before rain interrupted play. Delhi were 103 for three in 13.1 overs when bad weather stopped the proceedings.
The match resumed after one hour 13 minutes but the break hardly had any impact on Delhi batsman as Karthik smashed Sharma for a six and a four in consecutive balls to keep up the ante.
But just after nothing up their 50-run stand for the fourth wicket both Karthik and Shukla departed in quick succession, both falling to Henriques (2/26).
Once again Delhi's bizarre decision to send Shukla ahead of JP Duminy backfired as the in-form South African, who went out to bat in the 18th over, failed to make an impact and could only manage a run-a-ball.