Defiant Sunrisers Hyderabad hand Gujarat Titans their first defeat

A brilliant captain’s knock of 57 in 46 balls by Kane Williamson saw Sunrisers Hyderabad post their second successive victory, by eight wickets against Gujarat Titans at DY Patil Stadium on Monday.

After restricting Gujarat Titans for 162 for seven, SRH reached the target in the last over losing only two wickets. The win was their second in four matches while Titans tasted their first defeat after three victories.

Opening the innings with Abhishek Sharma, Williamson batted till the 17^th over, when he was out with SRH needing 34 more to win. The formalities were completed with left-handed Nicholas Pooran (34 not out, 18b, 2x4, 2x6) pulling Darshan Nalkande to the top-tier in the square leg region for the winning runs with five balls remaining.

SRH began cautiously, scoring only 11 in the first four overs off Md Shami and Hardik Pandya. However, Williamson pulled Shami for a four and hooked for a six to step on the accelerator in the fifth over while left-hander Sharma took over in the next, hitting New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson for 17 overs including four fours on the off side as SRH finished with a respectable 42/0 at the end of Power Play.

Sharma and Williamson shared 64 for the first wicket before Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan had the left-hander caught at the mid-wicket boundary for 42.

Having been sent in to bat, Titans posted 162/7. The total could have been much more but for some brilliant bowling in the end by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan, the two giving only 14 runs in the last two overs.

Barring a costly first over from the experienced Kumar in which he conceded 17 runs including 11 wides, SRH did well to contain Titans in the Power Play (51 for 2). They picked up two wickets, those of Shubman Gill to a brilliant one-handed catch by Rahul Tripathi at covers, cutting a full-blooded shot in Kumar’s second over, and left-handed Sai Sudarshan, whose intended drive in Natarajan’s first over popped up to mid-off for an easy catch to Williamson.

Titans captain Hardik Pandya shouldered the responsibility of his team’s batting at No. 4 despite receiving a nasty bouncer from pacer Umran Malik early on. The bouncer did jolt Pandya, hitting him on the grille but Pandya showed who the master was with a classic drive through covers and followed it with a pull to the vacant mid-wicket for successive fours.

Sunrisers bowlers bowled a tight line, not giving room for the Titans batsmen to play their shots, Pandya included. Titans’ quick runs came from the bat of Abhinav Manohar, who was unafraid to play his shots. Most of his boundaries came off edges, the ball flying behind the slip cordon or over the wicket-keeper for fours, the pace of Malik helping his cause that much more. On the odd occasion that Manohar hit off the middle of the bat, he was dropped by Aiden Markram at long off 21. Manohar, however, made the miss count by depositing the bowler over mid-wicket for six, hitting it cleanly this time.

Pandya was happy to play second fiddle to Manohar in the fifth-wicket partnership worth 50 off 32 balls, the latter’s contribution being 33 (21b, 5x4, 1x6). Pandya completed his fifty off the penultimate delivery of the innings, remaining unbeaten on 50 (42b, 4x4, 1x6). However, Pandya’s efforts were not enough on the day as Williamson was brilliant, as he usually is.