David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan lead Sunrisers Hyderabad to crushing 10-wicket win over Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016
David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan lead SRH to crushing 10-wicket win over GL in IPL 2016
David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan smashed half-centuries to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to a commanding 10-wicket win over Gujarat Lions (GL) in Match 15 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at Rajkot. It was GL’s first defeat of the season, and SRH’s second consecutive win. Warner remained unbeaten on 74 off 48 balls, while Dhawan scored 53 not out off 41 deliveries. Warner set up the match by going after the bowling early, but it was the positive innings played by Shikhar Dhawan that will give SRH a massive boost. Dhawan, who had been in terrible form leading up to the match, finally came good and played a good hand. He was still second fiddle to Warner, who took the attack to the GL bowlers in furious fashion. Warner set the tone early by smacking the recalled Dale Steyn for two boundaries in the first over of the chase. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Gujarat Lions vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2016, Match 15 at Rajkot
Warner was in no mood to mess around, hitting Praveen Kumar for 3 boundaries in the fourth over as well. Dhawan soon got into the action, hitting Dwayne Bravo for a boundary early in his innings. GL skipper Suresh Raina tried to pull a rabbit out of his hat by bringing himself on to bowl the sixth over, but Warner pounded him through cover and midwicket for back to back fours. Dhawan later took a fancy to Dwayne Bravo, hitting him for successive fours in the 12th over. By now the match was essentailly finished, with SRH needing 3 runs per over to win. They ended up winning with more than 5 overs and 10 wickets to spare.FULL CRICKET BLOG: Gujarat Lions vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2016, Match 15 at Rajkot
Earlier, Suresh Raina finally hit his first half-century in 30 T20 innings but recieved little support as GL ended up with a sub-par 135 for 8. GL suffered a major setback early when their best batsman of the tournament Aaron Finch was bowled for a duck in the first over of the match. The ever-reliable Bhuvneshwar Kumar once again struck early, beating Finch with a lovely in-swinger. Raina, in at No. 3, then put on 56 with Brendon McCullum before the latter’s dismissal for 18.
McCullum, who has looked quite rusty in the tournament so far, threatened to break free by hitting a six and a four off Baridner Sran in the fifth over of the innings. However, he failed to get any more boundaries after that. McCullum’s lack of form has been one of the few worries for GL’s otherwise impressive run so far. The former New Zealand skipper ended up holing out to Deepak Hooda off the bowling of Bipul Sharma. His 18 runs came off 17 balls.
Raina was batting beatifully at his end, but he saw wickets tumble at regular intervals. Dinesh Karthik swept a leg-stump full toss from Hooda into the hands of Bhuvneshwar at square leg for 8 off 9. Dwayne Bravo hit a Sran slower ball into the hands of Bhuvneshwar for 8 off 12 balls. Ravindra Jadeja was bowled by a slower ball from the sensational Mustafizur Rahman.
Through all this Raina was serene. He started his innings with a flurry of boundaries, hitting 4 fours in his first 10 balls. He kept the runs coming at a good rate, but was hampered by the constant loss of partners. He was stranded on the non-striker’s end for much of the death overs, facing only 4 balls in the 18th and 19th overs. He started the 20th over with a boundary but was out off the next ball for a well-made 75 off 51 balls, top-edging an attempted slog off Bhuvneshwar to Moises Henriques.
Bhuvneshwar struck off the next ball as well, with Akshdeep Nath holing out to Bipul Sharma for 5. Dale Steyn nearly awarded Bhuvneshwar a hat-trick by trying to slog the next ball, but the it landed short of the fielder at long-on. Bhuvneshwar ended up taking his fourth wicket and grabbing the Purple Cap when Steyn holed out off the last ball of the innings as GL finished at a mere 135 for 8.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Lions 135 for 8 in 20 overs (Suresh Raina 75; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4 for 29) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 137 for 0 in 14.5 overs (David Warner 75*, Shikhar Dhawan 53*) by 10 wickets.
Man of the Match: Bhuvneshwar Kumar
(Shiamak Unwalla, reporter with CricketCountry, is an animal lover and comic, film and TV geek. A fast bowler at heart, he enjoys watching a good, low-scoring game of cricket. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)