IPL 2016: Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Gujarat Lions by 5 wickets at Hyderabad, Stars and Flops

Sunrisers Hyderabad came out hard and emerged victorious in the 34th game of the Indian Premier League against Gujarat Lions at Hyderabad on Friday. They have now climbed up to the fourth position in the points table and continued their winning spree in the tournament. Gujarat Lions on the other hand had a disappointing outing as they lost the third game on a trot. IPL 2016, Match 34, Pick of the tweets: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Gujarat Lions at Delhi

David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket which looked conducive for seam bowling. SRH probably have the best pace attack in the tournament with the likes of Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques. They wear a dominant look and can rip any batting line up on a given day. Video: Vijay Shankar cups a beauty to dismiss Dwayne Bravo

Their bowlers did a commendable job in chipping early wickets and restricting the run flow. GL’s wickets fell like nine pins and no batsmen other than Aaron Finch managed to hold on to their grounds and floundered early on in the innings. Finch scored a tenacious fifty and guided his side to a fighting total of 126. Suresh Raina looked in sublime for as he was timing the ball well and hit couple of sixes in his cameo of 20 but unfortunately landed one straight into the hands of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to turn things around. Further, Dwayne BRavo and Ravindra Jadeja contributed some process 18 runs each and complimented Finch well.

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SRH started off on a brisk note as Warner came out all guns blazing and attacked the GL bowlers from the outset. But moments later, he was dismissed and GL bowlers managed to chip some more wickets. The game was evenly poised at 81 for in 14 overs but Shikhar Dhawan stuck to his guns and carried the team over the line. Kane Williamson was done and dusted with a good catch by Dwayne Smith at covers. Their man in form Dinesh Karthik was also dismantled for a duck by a hair raising catch by Williamson at deep point.

Yuvraj Singh, who was making his first appearance in this season failed to make any impact in the tournament as he was dismissed for a mere score of 5. GL bowlers too did a good job in scalping six wickets. Dhawal Kulkarni was the standout performer for GL as he claimed couple of wickets and gave away just 17 runs in his spell of four overs. Dwayne Bravo also bowled magnificently and accounted for two wickets in his quota of three overs while giving away just 14 overs. But there weren’t enough runs on the board to restrict SRH.

Turning Point: Dwayne Bravo was looking to shift gears and was quietly stitching an important partnership with Finch. His dismissal in the 15th over by Barinder Sran once again put GL on the back foot and the momentum was lost. It was a brilliant effort by Vijay Shankar in the deep to cup a stunning catch and set Bravo walking.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat Lions 126 for 6 in 20 overs [Aaron Finch 51(42), Suresh Raina 20(10); Mustafizur Rahman 4-0-17-2, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-28-2] lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad  129 for 5 in 19 overs [Shikhar Dhawan 47(40), David Warner 24(17); Dhawal Kulkarni 4-1-17-2, Dwayne Bravo 3-0-14-2] by 5 wickets.