NodeMCU ESP8266 Client-Server communication - arduino

Question

I am trying to connect two ESP8266 boards to communicate with each other. The client board first connects to the server and sends a message, the character 'd', after the server receives the message it replies with "Hello from server".
Server
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiClient.h>
char *ssid = "SSID";
char *pass = "PASS";
int stat;
WiFiServer server(8080);
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
WiFi.begin(ssid,pass);
Serial.println("Connecting to wifi ");
while(WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
delay(500);
Serial.print(".");
delay(500);
}
Serial.print("SSID :");
Serial.print(ssid);
Serial.println("ip: ");
Serial.print(WiFi.localIP());
server.begin();
}
void loop() {
WiFiClient client = server.available();
if(client){
if(client.connected()){
Serial.println("Client connected");
if(client.available() > 0){
delay(500);
char data = client.read();
Serial.println(data);
delay(500);
}
char d[] = "Hello from server";
client.println(d);
}
client.stop();
}
}
Client
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiClient.h>
char *ssid = "SSID";
char *pass = "PASS";
char *host = "ip";
WiFiClient client;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
WiFi.begin(ssid,pass);
Serial.println("Connecting to wifi");
while(WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
delay(500);
Serial.print(".");
delay(500);
}
//Serial.println("Connecting to wifi network");
Serial.print("SSID: ");
Serial.print(ssid);
Serial.println("Connected");
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
if(client.connect(host, 8080)) {
Serial.println("Connected to server");
client.println('d');
if(client.available() > 0){
delay(500);
Serial.println(client.read());
delay(500);
}
else{
Serial.println("No data received");
}
}
else{
Serial.println("Cannot connect to server");
}
client.stop();
}
The problem is that the message from client is received by the server. But the reply is not sent. When I try to see the reply from server using serial monitor in the client it gets connected to the server and the message is sent but the reply is not received.
I'm new to this domain and would like to know whether I'm doing it correctly or not. Any suggestions and solutions will help a lot.
Thank you.