IPL 2018: Dhawan, Williamson take Hyderabad to play-offs, beat Delhi by 9 wickets

Opener Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Kane Williamson shared an unbeaten 176-run stand to overshadow a breathtaking hundred from Rishbah Pant.

Hyderabad sailed into the Indian Premier League play-offs with a commanding nine-wicket victory over Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Thursday.

Delhi's 187 for five was a challenging target but Dhawan's 92 not out off 50 balls and captain's 83 not out off 53 ensured Hyderabad home in 18.5 overs.

With just six points from 11 games, Delhi are now certain to make another early exit from the tournament.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad led the table with 18 points from 11 games.

Earlier, Pant slammed his maiden IPL hundred, an epic 128 not out off just 63 balls which was not enough to for Delhi to defeat Hyderabad.

Pant helped Delhi overcome a poor start to reach an imposing total.

Pant was unstoppable in his unbeaten knock as he depleted with arguably the best bowling attack in the competition, single-handedly giving a fighting chance to a struggling Delhi.

His century came at the perfect time when the top three batsmen failed to contribute much. His long innings included 15 boundaries and seven long sixes.

For Hyderabad, Shakib Al Hasan was the only bowler who managed to take two wickets.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar had to settle for one while three players got run-out.

Delhi skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat against Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Thursday.

Struggling at the bottom of the points table, the hosts made three changes to their playing XI by including Shahbaz Nadeem, Jason Roy and Harshal Patel in place of Avesh Khan, Daniel Christian and Naman Ojha.

On the other hand, the tourists replaced injured wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha with Shreevats Goswami.

Teams:

Hyderabad:Alex Hales, Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson (Captain), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami (WK), Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma.

Daredevils:Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Rishabh Pant (WK), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Liam Plunkett, Harshal Patel, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Trent Boult.