Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderbad have now won back-to-back IPL 2017 matches as they beat Gujarat Lions comprehensively at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday. It was their bowlers primarily, Rashid Khan, who took three top order GL batsmen, and later on David Warner played an important role with a half-century to help SRH win by nine wickets.
After GL scored 135 runs from their 20 overs, it was never going to be difficult for the home team, as they reached the target in overs. With the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Warner as openers, Gujarat Lions had to create early inroads if they were to make a match out if it, and Suresh Raina opening the bowling did raise a few eyebrows.
It was SRH, who got a good head start with both the batsmen dealing in boundaries, but Shikhar lost his wicket to a full toss from Praveen Kumar in the fourth over.
Despite the wicket, Warner (76, 45b, 6x4, 4x6) was in no mood to change his game as the Australian continued his impressive batting skills, playing some aggressive cricket, and inching closer towards the target. The GL made good use of the field restrictions, scoring 59 runs in the powerplay.
From there was it was all easy for SRH, who were in cruise control of the IPL 2017 match. Warner and Moises Henriques (52, 39b, 6x4) did not have any trouble against the weak bowling of GL, who were trying their best to break the partnership, but to no avail.
Warner, who looked at ease against both the pacers and seamers, was the one doing majority of the scoring. Warner looked in absolute control of his innings, which was decorated with fours and sixes, and he finished the game with a six straight down the ground.
Earlier after SRH won toss, asked Gujarat Lions to bat first, Jason Roy (31, 21b, 5x4) was in brilliant form, and took on the SRH bowlers as he hit fours all around the ground against the seamers as well as the pacers. Though SRH started with spinner Bipul Sharma, Roy was not troubled against him, but Brendon McCullum was not getting much strike, and he eventually lost his wicket to Rashid Khan in the fifth over.
Next man Suresh Raina was lucky to be dropped in Rashid's next ball as Warner could not latch onto the ball at slips. But, Roy was back to the dugout in the next over after a low catch from Shikhar Dhawan.
Things went from bad to worse as Rashid took his second wicket of the day as Australian Aaron Finch could not read his googly, leading to his dismissal for just three runs. The GL batsmen were not able to read his wrong one, which was troubling the visitors.
Rashid's varieties were troubling Gujarat players as their skipper Raina was once again trapped leg before wicket by the Afghan, putting the visitors in serious trouble. The score read 57 for the loss of four wickets when Raina departed, But Karthik and Dwayne Smith (37, 27b, 4x4, 1x6) were involved in some great partnership to bring back Gujarat Lions into the game.
Smith lost his wicket while trying to up the ante, which was followed by Karthik (30, 32b, 4x4,1x6) in the next over, making life difficult for Gujarat, who finished with 135 runs, which did not prove to be enough as they lost their second straight match in IPL 2017.
Match scorecard
GL: 135 runs in 20 overs
SRH: 140 runs in 15.3 overs
Result: SRH win by nine wickets.
Bowling: SRH: Bipul Sharma 4-0-24-0; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-21-2; Ashish Nehra 4-0-27-1; Rashid Khan 4-0-19-3; Ben Cutting 3-0-29-0; Moises Henriques 1-0-12-0.
GL: Suresh Raina2-0-24-0,Praveen Kumar 2-0-16-1; Tejas Baroka 3.3-0-33-0;Dhawal Kulkarni 2-0-17-0; Shivil Kaushik 4-0-29-0; Basil Thampi 2-0-21-0;
Fall of wickets: GL: 1-35, McCullum (4.5 ov), 2-37, Roy ( 5.2 ov), 3-42, Finch (6.2 ov), 4-57, Raina, (9 ov), 5-113, Smith (16.4 ov), 6-114, Karthik (17.2 ov), 7-115, Kulkarni (17.4 ov)
SRH: 1-32, Dhawan (3.1 ov)
