A brilliant bowling performance by Sunrisers Hyderabad helped them thrash the Gujarat Lions by nine wickets in Hyderabad. The Lions were restricted to only 135/7 in their 20 overs which the Sunrisers chased down without much difficulty. The star of the show was the 18-year-old Afghanistan leg-spinner who claimed 3/19 and also effected a run-out.
Jason Roy’s cameo
Gujarat have loaded their side with batsmen even at the cost of making the bowling looking relatively weak but they just haven’t been able to get going. On Sunday, Jason Roy tried to change that even though his partner Brendon McCullum was struggling. The first over from Bipul Sharma yielded just 3 runs but then Roy decided to have a go. Two back-to-back fours against Bhuvneshwar in the second over gave Gujarat some momentum. He followed it up with another 2 fours off Bipul in the third over. Another four off Nehra in the fourth over seemed like he was settling in for the long haul but he was then dismissed by a good diving catch at midwicket off Bhuvneshwar. At that point, he had scored 31 off GL’s 37 runs.
Rashid the variation
T20 cricket is tailor-made for leg-spinners. Batsmen are looking to go after the bowling and the wrist-spinners variations make them hard to pick. Point in case: Rashid Khan. The 18-year-old Afghan leg-spinner has been running through Affiliate sides and he showed that he can do the same at a higher level too. A googly got him his first wicket in his first over. A googly almost got him his second wicket — deceiving Suresh Raina — but he was dropped in the slips. Another googly trapped Finch in front of his stumps. And then, as a variation — with Raina expecting the googly, Rashid slipped in the regular leg-spinner. 3 wickets in 3 overs... job done? Not quite. He also chipped in with a direct hit to send back Dhawal Kulkarni.
On the sidelines, SRH coach Tom Moody revealed that SRH wanted to set up differently this year and that is why we went after Rashid in the auction and so far he is more than living up to expectations.
No late flourish
After being reduced to 57-4, Gujarat slowly worked their way to 113 through Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Smith but just when they seemed primed to explode, Sunrisers struck back through Bhuvneshwar (in the 17th over) and Ashish Nehra (in the 18th).
17th over (Bhuvi): 1 1 1 W 0 0
18th over (Nehra): 1 W 1 W 1 1
The two overs essentially meant that Gujarat were not even able to reach 150. They ended up with just 135.
Opening the bowling with Raina
If you are defending just 135, would you open the bowling with Suresh Raina? The chances of actually restricting SRH were minimal — which meant that you had to go for the wickets. And in this scenario, Raina decided to bowl himself. If this wasn’t a reflection of how much confidence he has in his bowlers, then nothing is. In case, you are wondering how it turned out: 2-0-24-0. Good start... for SRH that is.
Well balanced SRH
Gujarat have loaded their batting line-up but SRH seem to have managed to get the right balance. They have enough variation in their bowling and their batting line-up has a wonderful mix of big hitters. Moises Henriques is batting up the order but that if probably just to ensure that they don’t just have left-handers all the way. Warner, Dhawan, Henriques, Yuvraj, Hooda, Cutting and Ojha. A lot of quality and a lot of hunger to get back in their national squads too.
Warner’s fifty
Rashid’s brilliance made things easy but at the end of the day, someone still has to go out and make those runs. In SRH’s case, their skipper David Warner put his hand up. The left-hander scored a classic fifty off just 31 balls. 6 boundaries and 2 sixes (both off Raina). His innings also ensured that SRH’s run-rate got a huge bump up and that will help them later in the tournament.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Lions 135/7 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 37, Jason Roy 31; Rashid Khan 3/31, Ashish Nehra 1/27) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 140/1 in 15.3 overs (David Warner 76 not out, Moises Henriques 52 not out; Praveen Kumar 1/16) by 9 wickets
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