CHENNAI: Riding on half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (75 n.o) and Travis Head (89 n.o), Sunrisers Hyderabad decimated Lucknow Super Giants with a creditable 10-wicket victory in an IPL match played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Wednesday. Given a target of 166 to win, Sharma and Head were bang on the target from the word go.
The duo was in complete control of the proceedings and scored runs at will treating the entire Lucknow attack with scant respect.
It was a forgettable day for Lucknow skipper KL Rahul as none of his plans worked and the fact that Hyderabad won inside 10 overs must be demotivating for the team.
Earlier, Ayush Badoni's unbeaten 55 and Nicholas Pooran's stubborn 48 not out came in handy for Lucknow to post 165 for 4 in 20 overs against the hosts. The duo added 99 runs for the unfinished fifth wicket.
Opting to bat, Lucknow had a disastrous start as they lost Quinton de Kock cheaply.
The South African pulled a length ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to backward square leg, the ball seemed to be soaring over the ropes, but Nitish Reddy remained calm to claim a brilliant catch.
Now a lot depended upon skipper Rahul and Marcus Stoinis to do the rescue act and consolidate. But that was not to be as the dangerous and hard-hitting Stoinis miscued a pull shot off Bhuvneshwar with Sanvir Singh taking a stunning catch at the mid on.
After that Rahul and Krunal Pandya made a sincere effort to stem the rot but met with limited success.
Rahul took on Cummins, while Krunal was harsh on Jaydev Unadkat carting the fast bowler for two consecutive sixes. Rahul fell to Cummins, while Krunal was unlucky to get run out. Lucknow were reduced to 66 for 4 in 11.2 overs.
Badoni, who is known to have an uncanny knack for scoring runs at a fast clip, joined Pooran in what was the best phase for Lucknow. Badoni played fluently and his three boundaries in a T Natarajan over showed his intent and class. He raced to his fifty in just 28 balls.
Barring Bhuvneshwar none of the Hyderabad fast bowlers were impressive. Instead, their spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Vijayakanth were economical.