Williamson half century helps Sunrisers snap Gujarat Titans' unbeaten run
NAVI MUMBAI: Gujarat Titans, the Indian Premier League’s form team having won three in as many games to start the season, have had the desired results because of their bowlers.
Their new ball wicket-takers have combined well with lead spinner, Rashid Khan. Shubman Gill’s aggressive approach has allowed to dictate terms.
On Monday, though, they had Hardik Pandya who stepped up with a gritty half-century while Abhinav Manohar lifted them to 162/7 which proved to be not enough as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down the target in fairly comfortable manner thanks to skipper Kane Williamson’s mature half-century.
Hardik lost the toss and he was soon walking out inside the powerplay.
Even though they had a decent start, Hyderabad, who had won one in three coming into the match, helped them with some wayward bowling (10 wides came in the opening three overs alone). However, the trio of Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Matthew Wade were all back in the pavillion after scratchy knocks.
Suddenly, Hyderabad were on top having reduced Gujarat to 63 for 3. Full marks for Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson for shuffling his bowlers well and maintaining the pressure.
Pandya began sedately keeping in mind the situation. But after getting hit on the helmet visor off a flyer from Umran Mallik, he showed lot of determination and picked up boundaries at will. He kept chatting often with David Miller in order to try and register a partnership.
Williamson employed Umran Mallik, T Natarajan and Washington Sundar against him in order to prevent the India all-rounder from playing his shots freely.
To an extent, this ploy was successful for Hyderabad.
Pandya and Miller added 40 runs for the fourth wicket.
After that partnership finished, the skipper guided Abhinav Manohar and stitched a 50-run stand for the fifth wicket. Abhinav rode on the generosity of Hyderabad fielders (dropped thrice) to post 35.
Rahul Tewatia has a strike rate of 143.7 against pacers in the IPL.
He came in when only when seven balls were left in the Gujarat innings and thus could not do much. Natarajan bowled a good final over where he conceded only seven runs and took the wicket of Khan.
Chasing 163 for the win, Hyderabad began slowly as both Mohammed Shami and Pandya bowled intelligent lines and did not give Abhishek Sharma and Williamson to play their shots.
Shami gave away just six runs in his first two overs. Pandya, who just gave one run in his first over and four in his next, has shown improvement in his bowling with every passing game.
Khan gave the first breakthrough as he induced Abhishek (42) to play a false shot.
Williamson (57) took them closer to the target and Nicholas Pooran completed the rest with a quickfire 34 off just 18 balls as Hyderabad beat Gujarat comfortably by eight wickets with five balls to spare.
Brief scores: GT 162/7 in 20 ovs (Hardik 50 n.o; Natarajan 2/34, Bhuvaneshwar 2/37) lost to SRH 168/2 in 19.1 overss (Williamson 57, Abhishek 42, Pooran 34 n.o).