Gujarat Titans pulled off another epic heist with Rashid Khan smashing sixes off the last two balls to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in their Indian Premier League 2022 clash at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
Set a daunting target of 196, GT needed 22 runs off the last over by Marco Jansen and they got over the line in style with Rashid and Rahul Tewatia hitting four sixes between them in the last six balls.
Gujarat’s chase was set up by opener Wriddhiman Saha who registered a 38-ball 68. The senior right-hander was fluent from the get-go and hit 11 fours and a six in his knock.
It then seemed Umran Malik had done the job for Hyderabad as the fiery right-arm pacer picked five wickets, four of them being clean bowled, to run through Gujarat’s top order. The 22-year-old got the wickets of Shubman Gill, skipper Hardik Pandya, Saha, David Miller and Abhinav Manohar.
But Rashid (31* off 11) and Tewatia (40* off 21) had other plans as they pulled off a thrilling win for Gujarat to help the team return to the top of the points table.
Earlier, Hyderabad weren’t off to the best start and Mohammed Shami (3/39) cleaned up skipper Kane Williamson in the third over. Shami followed that up by removing Rahul Tripathi inside the powerplay.
But Abhishek Sharma (65 off 42) and Aiden Markram (56 off 42) then got together to add a 96-run stand for the third wicket. The left-hand-right-hand duo paced their partnership well and went after the dangerous Rashid (0/45).
However, it came down to a stunning knock from Shashank Singh, batting for the first time in the IPL, to help SRH reach an imposing total. The right-hander, who was in at No 5, hit Lockie Ferguson for a hat-trick of sixes to end the innings and remain unbeaten on 25 runs off just six deliveries.
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