David Warner, KL Rahul propel Sunrisers Hyderabad to 172/5 against Mumbai Indians in IPL 2014
Warner, Rahul propel Hyderabad to 172/5
By R Vishal
Apr 26, 2014
In the 20th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014, Sunrisers Hyderabad were buoyed by excellent knocks from David Warner and KL Rahul to take them to commanding total of 172 for five against Mumbai Indians . Despite losing two early wickets in the powerplay overs, Warner and Rahul maintained a fine balance between finesse and fury and constructed a mammoth 111-run partnership that threw the defending champions’ momentum out of gear after losing two early wickets.
Zaheer Khan opened the proceedings for Mumbai and the Hyderabad openers started steadily for Hyderabad. Finch cut lose and spanked two boundaries — one flick in the square leg area and one beating short-fine leg. In the third over Dhawan slapped an over-pitched Zaheer delivery though the covers but edged the next ball to Harbhajan Singh at first slip.
Dhawan’s wicket didn’t stop the scoring rare as Finch welcomed Praghyan Ojha with a boundary and KL Rahul followed suit with a crisp cover drive for a boundary. Harbhajan’s awkward dive to stop a ball that bounced in front of him and letting the white cherry run to the boundary was a perfect example of the older crop of Mumbai being a liability on the field.
With the older guard disappointing on the field, the younger end were on the other end of the spectrum. Mumbai began to apply the pressure on Hyderabad and Ben Dunk took a wonderful catch on his toes to send Aaron Finch back to the pavilion and a diving stop to save a single showed his fielding prowess. After Dunk, it was Cory Anderson, despite his stocky frame and his towering figure who displayed good athleticism that brought the crowd on its feet.
In the eight over, Praghyan Ojha lost his rhythm with a poor delivery down the leg-side that went for four wides and Warner swept the next ball over the deep square leg boundary for a six. 15 runs came of the eight over. Warner found proceedings rather tedious initially and despite a big six off Ojha, the belligerent Australian was not in his element and was finding it hard to rotate the strike.
Despite the scoring rate being average, the batsmen did not panic and go for any risky shots and rotated the strike in the initial phase in the post-powerplay overs.
Warner and KL Rahul, with minimal risks had brought up their 50 partnership in the 13th over. Rahul’s timing was on full display with a fine stoke behind point and had a touch of Mahela Jayawardene about his strokemaking. India have yet another exciting young talent on their hands.Kieron Pollard’s hilarious taunting lit up a spark in Warner in fourteenth over saw an excellent straight drive that was slapped past the. Ojha’s nightmare of a day continued with yet another four wides.
Warner piled further damage to Ojha’s figures with a massive six over long on. Malinga and Zaheer came back and their cool, calm heads produced two very tidy overs at a crucial juncture and the momentum was firmly with Hyderabad. After Pollard and Warner, the diminutive Aussie got into a sledging match with Zaheer with a ‘shush’ gesture. Corey Andreson’s first ball of the match was smacked by Warner over deep square leg and tried a switch hit of the next delivery that got a nick and was pouched by the ‘keeper CM Gautam. There was no respite for Anderson as Dareen Sammy walloped an enormous six over long on. Two wide deliveries was followed by a boundary of third man. Naman Ojha gave a excellent final flourish with two brilliant hits down the ground of Malinga to take Hyderabad to a score that Mumbai haven’ t yet reached in the IPL so far.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 172 for 5 in 20 overs (Aaron Finch 16, KL Rahul 46*, David Warner 65; Zaheer Khan 2 for 26, Corey Anderson 2 for 18) vs Mumbai Indians.
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R Vishal is a journalist and alumni of the Asian College of Journalism. He can be followed on Twitter @vishhell)