Delhi Capitals all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had to end his over abruptly in the contest against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday. As the Australian international darted to bowl the second delivery of the ninth over, he pulled out at the last moment, perhaps with a calf muscle issue.
Physio Patrick Farhart assessed Stoinis before he walked off the field. Ravichandran Ashwin stepped in and completed the over. The 32-year-old Stoinis is also a part of Australia's squad for the T20 World Cup, scheduled to start on October 17 in the UAE and Oman.
Sunrisers, currently languishing at the bottom of the IPL 2021 points table with just two points, made a shaky start as they resumed the UAE leg against Capitals.
Meanwhile, former skipper David Warner's return to the Playing XI was cut short by pacer Anrich Nortje, who dismissed the southpaw for a duck in the first over. Hyderabad also lost Wriddhiman Saha (18) in the Powerplay after the wicketkeeper-batsman fell prey to the pace of Kagiso Rabada.
Captain Kane Williamson (18) and Manish Pandey (17) also failed to notch up big scores, leaving their side reeling on 61/4 at the halfway stage.
Earlier, Hyderabad, hoping to "regroup" and put an improved performance in the UAE phase, won the toss and elected to bat. "Looks a good surface, important for us to assess conditions first up and get some runs on the board. It's a chance to regroup and want to put up a much better performance. Holder, Rashid, Warner and myself are the four foreign players," said Williamson.
Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (captain and wicketkeeper), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khana and Anrich Nortje
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (captain), David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed
