Sunrisers Hyderabad ride on some disciplined bowling before Shikhar Dhawan anchors the chase to beat Gujarat Lions by five wickets in an IPL 9 league game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Friday
Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan’s matured 40-ball 47 not out denied Gujarat Lions from reclaiming the top spot in the Indian Premier League-9 table here yesterday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Shikhar Dhawan plays a shot during the 2016 Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Lions at The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday night. Pic/AFP
Dhawan put his international experience to good use during the modest 126-6 run chase against the Lions at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here.
The five-wicket win helped Sunrisers Hyderabad move to the fourth spot, while Gujarat remained at No 2.
Batting certainly was not an easy task here yesterday. While the Lions managed to send the ball over the boundary line only 11 times (8 fours & 3 sixes) in their 20 overs, SRH did so just 15 times (13 fours and two sixes).
Dull encounter
Only 111 runs were scored by both teams — Gujarat (54) and Hyderabad (57) — in their first 10 overs, making yesterday’s match one of the dullest contests in this tournament so far.
Hyderabad were off to a blazing start by skipper David Warner. However, the Australian’s wicket stemmed the free flow of runs.
Then, the wickets of Kane Williamson (6) and Moises Henriques (14) brought the Lions back into the game.
Like SRH’s bowlers, the Gujarat pacers too, especially, Praveen Kumar (4-0-28-1), Dhawal Kulkarni (4-1-17-2) and Dwayne Bravo (3-0-14-2) hardly gave away any easy runs, at least, in the first half of SRH’s innings.
Yuvraj flops
Yuvraj Singh, playing his maiden match of IPL-9, was totally off colour with both bat and ball. He was dismissed for five by Kulkarni and later conceded 13 runs in his two overs without claiming a wicket.
Dhawan, however, kept his calm and resisted from playing flashy shots as he safely steered his team to victory.
Earlier, the Sunrisers rode on some brilliant bowling especially from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-28, Mustafizur Rahman (2-17) and Ashish Nehra (0-23).
The Lions were off to a poor start losing the key wicket of West Indian power-hitter Dwayne Smith early after being sent in to bat. However, Aaron Finch’s unbeaten 51 ensured the Lions eventually brought some respectability to the total — 126-6.
With the visitors tottering at 106 for 6 in the 19th over, Praveen Kumar (6) and Finch took the Lions to 126 for 6 in their stipulated 20 overs. Finch’s 42-ball knock was laced with three four and a six.
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