Abu Dhabi, Nov 8 (IANS): Delhi Capitals (DC) came up with a novel way of countering SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) spin wizard Rashid Khan in Qualifier 1 of the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.

The Ricky Ponting-coached team promoted hard-hitting all-rounder Marcus Stoinis up the order to go after the bowling in the powerplay along with left-handed batsman Shikhar Dhawan. It helped them avoid taking unnecessary risks against Rashid in the middle overs when pressure to keep the scoreboard ticking builds.

Both Stoinis and Dhawan managed to put up 65 without loss in the the first six overs. Even though Rashid eventually removed Stoinis, the DC batsmen managed to play out Rashid, while milking the bowlers at the other end.

Rashid finished with one for 26 in his fours overs, a far cry from the previous two games between the two sides where the Afghanistan leg-spinner led them to victory by picking three wickets in each of the two games and conceded a total of 21 runs.

The strategy also forced Warner to save one of Rashid's over for the last quarter of the innings unlike in the last match where he bowled all of Rashid's four overs in the middle overs against a struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore.

RCB skipper Virat Kohli too had tried a similar ploy in the Eliminator on Friday. Kohli opened the innings in Friday's game in the hope of using the powerplay to get quick runs early before Rashid's middle-overs spell would begin. The RCB captain got out early as did other batsmen allowing Rashid to throttle the innings in the middle overs.