Charging Titans topple Sunrisers
A captain’s knock of 64 (42b, 7x4, 4x6) by Henry Davids and his 112-run alliance for the opening wicket with Jacques Rudolph powered Titans to a thumping eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their crucial CLT20 Group B match at JSCA Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing 146 for victory, the South African side romped home with 21 balls to spare. This was Titans’ second win in three matches and brightened their chances of reaching the semifinals.
They now have eight points from three matches and would take on Trinidad & Tobago in their last league game, two days later. On the other hand, Sunrisers suffered their second successive defeat and stayed on four points.
Earlier, put into bat under overcast conditions, Sunrisers got off to a fine start with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel scoring 60 runs in the first six powerplay overs. Dhawan was the more aggressive of the duo as he hit Rowan Richards and Morne Morkel for two fours each in the third and fourth overs respectively.
But all-rounder Wiese bagged three wickets in his first three overs to put Sunrisers on the back foot. He ended the 62-run opening-wicket stand, dismissing Dhawan, who slashed a short and wide ball straight to Morkel at third man for 37 (21b, 7x4, 1x6).
Parthiv Patel joined his skipper in the pavilion nine runs later, bowled by Wiese with an off-cutter for 26 (24b, 2x4, 2x6). A poor performance by the middle order saw Sunrisers losing four wickets in the space of a meagre 24 runs.
Between overs seven and 17, Sunrisers could find only one boundary. Vihari straight-drove Wiese to the fence in the 11th over, only to be dismissed in the same over. But wickets continued to fall in quick intervals as dependable overseas all-rounders JP Duminy, Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera too failed to fire.
SCOREBOARD: Sunrisers Hyderabad: P Patel b Wiese 26, S Dhawan c Morkel b Wiese 37, JP Duminy b M de Lange 17, H Vihari c Davids b Wiese 6, B Samantray st Mosehle b Davids 0, T Perera run out 11, D Sammy c Behardien b Richards 1, K Sharma not out 11, D Steyn not out 27. Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 7) 9. Total (for 7 wkts in 20 overs) 145.
Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-71, 3-83, 4-86, 5-102, 6-105, 7-112.
Bowling: Davids 4-0-18-1, Morkel 4-0-42-0, Richards 4-0-24-1, De Lange 4-0-42-1, Wiese 4-0-17-3.
Titans: J Rudolph not out 49, H Davids c Sammy b Steyn 64, AB de Villiers c Perera b I Sharma 9, Heino Kuhn not out 15. Extras (lb 6, w 4) 10. Total (for 2 wkts in 16.3 overs) 147.
Fall of wickets: 1-112, 2-123.
Bowling: K Sharma 1-0-9-0, Steyn 4-0-23-1, I Sharma 4-0-32-1, Perera 2.3-0-29-0, Mishra 2-0-17-0, Duminy 1-0-14-0, Sammy 2-0-17-0.