On Friday 5th April at the Chennai Super Kings versus Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL match, it was the southpaws who dominated the batting crease, creating the involuntary ohh! moments that make a T20 game such an exciting watch.
First up there was Shivam Dube of CSK with his searing 24 ball 45 that saw 2 fours and 4 sixes. SRH captain Pat Cummins felled Dube’s scalp before he could do any more harm. In the four matches in this IPL, Shivam Dube has scored a total of 148 runs at a strike-rate of 160.87. This includes a quickfire half-century as well but Dube’s explosive 45 on Friday could not help his team CSK amass a big enough total to defend.
Dube’s team mate the New Zealand sensation and lefthanded batsman Rachin Ravindra failed to live up to his promise. With a strike rate of over 200 he managed a mere 12 of 9 balls being the first CSK wicket to go in the 3rd over itself.
It was left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma of Sunrisers Hyderabad who notched up an impressive 37 from just 12 balls, with the aid of 3 fours and 4 sixes, that gave SRH the start that they needed. With a strike rate of 308.33 there was no hesitation in declaring Abhishek as the Player of the Match. With this match Abhishek Sharma entered the list of top 5 run scorers of IPL 2024. He has 161 runs from 4 matches at a strike rate of 217.
The other opener for HSR, Travis Head, another southpaw, kept the momentum going once Abhishek had left the scene in the 3rd over itself, putting on 31 of 24 balls with the help of 1 six and 3 fours. When Travis left the crease in the 10th over, the second wicket to fall, SRH had already crossed the 100 mark and only 60 runs were needed to cross the CSK total of 165.
The third left-handed batsman in the SRH side to take the field was Shahbaz Ahmed who was going strong till he decided to go reverse after having belted a six in the previous delivery. The call was for LBW which the umpire denied but Chennai took the review and Shahbaz was declared out 18 runs of 19 balls.
The opening southpaws of Sunrisers Hyderabad had made the task simple for rest of the team to easily complete. No wonder then that SRH won the match with 11 balls to spare and 6 wickets still in hand.
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