Bairstow, Rashid set up season's first win for Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abu Dhabi: Opener Jonny Bairstow's sublime fifty was complemented by a stellar bowling effort from Rashid Khan as Sunrisers Hyderabad outplayed Delhi Capitals by 15 runs to open their account in the 13th IPL here on Tuesday.
Put in to bat, Bairstow (53 off 48) scored his second fifty of the tournament, while David Warner (45 off 33) and Kane Williamson (41 off 26) also came up with valuable contributions, helping Sunrisers Hyderabad post a competitive 162 for four.
Defending the total, leg-spinner Rashid (3/14) returned with three crucial wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/25) scalped two and T Natarajan and Khaleel Ahmed (1/43) claimed too chipped in to restrict Delhi to 147 for 7 in 2 for a deserving win.
Delhi lost opener Prithvi Shaw (2) early in their chase but Shikhar Dhawan (34 off 31) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (17) took them to 34 for one in the first six overs.
Rashid got into the act straightaway, dismissing Iyer with his second ball and then returned to remove Dhawan with a wrong'un in the 12th over as DC slipped to 63 for three.
Rishabh Pant then smashed two sixes on both sides of the wicket in the 13th over to ease the pressure. Shimron Hetmyer (21) also joined the party, launching Khaleel Ahmed for successive sixes in the 15th over.
However, Bhuvneshwar came back to dismiss Hetmyer, before Pant became the third victim of Rashid.
Needing 59 runs from 30 balls, all eyes were on Marcus Stoinis (11) but he was done in by a well placed yorker from Natarajan to end Delhi's hopes.
Earlier, Bairstow smashed two fours and one six in his innings and shared two crucial partnerships -- 77 off 57 balls with Warner for the opening stand and 52 off 38 balls with Williamson for the third wicket.
Making his IPL debut, Jammu and Kashmir's Abdul Samad (12 off 7) blasted a four and six in his useful cameo.
Warner and Bairstow were circumspect with the pace trio of Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada (2/21) and Anrich Nortje maintaining their line and length.
The result was Sunrisers could only score 38 in the powerplay, which yielded just two fours and a six -- all hit by Warner.
Bairstow picked his first boundary in the seventh over, launching a slog sweep for a six off leg-spinner Amit Mishra (2/35).
The duo tried to make up for the lack of boundaries on the slow track with their excellent running between the wickets to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Warner sent one straight over Ishant's head for his second six and then picked a four off Mishra with a reverse sweep but the spinner had the last laugh as he had him caught behind with SRH reaching 82 for one in 10 overs.
Mishra returned to dismiss Manish Pandey (3) before Sunrisers crossed the 100-mark in 14th over.
Playing his first match of the season after recovering from an injury, Williamson smashed two fours in the 16th over to take SRH to 128 for two.
Bairstow reached his fifty off 44 balls before holding out to Nortje in the 18th over. Williamson too was dismissed in the last over.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
