Mumbai, April 27: Brilliant fifty from Abhishek Sharma (65 for 42), Aiden Markram (56 for 40) and a late blitz from Shashank Singh (25 for 6) took Sunrisers Hyderabad to 195/6 against Gujarat Titans in an IPL 2022 match at the Wankhede Stadium, here Wednesday.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Mohammed Shami slid down the side of the leg into SRH starter Abhishek Sharma twice in the opening innings to give up 11 runs. Left-arm pacer Yash Dayal, who hit the bowling next, was hit for two fours by Abhishek as Hyderabad raced to 22/0 after the 2-overs finish.
However, Shami made a brilliant comeback by sacking SRH captain Kane Williamson (5) on an incoming delivery. Rahul Tripathi (16-for-10), who was up next, was brought down by Rashid Khan when he was at 0. The right-handed batsman took advantage of that reprieve and crushed Shami for a six and two fours in succession against the veteran. the pacer caught him in front of the stumps to leave SRH at 44/2 after 5 overs.
From there, Abhishek and Aiden Markram did the work of rebuilding Hyderabad. Although they couldn’t find regular limits, both Abhishek and Markram rotated the strike as much as possible and kept SRH’s run rate constant.
After spending enough time in the middle, Abhishek decided to free his arms and hit former teammate Rashid Khan for two sixes in the 12th and regained his 33-ball half-century. On the other hand, Markram would seek limits at regular intervals for the likes of Alzarri Joseph and Lockie Ferguson.
With five overs to go and both batsmen at the ready, SRH were headed for a big score, but a cut from Joseph unraveled Abhishek, who went on 65 for 42, leaving SRH at 140/3 on 15.1 overs. Nicholas Pooran (3), the next batsman couldn’t do much and was sacked by Shami on his comeback spell.
Despite losing fast wickets from the other end, Markram continued his innings with equal force and reached his half-century. But he couldn’t put the finishing touch on SRH’s innings, coming off a slow ball from Yash Dayal on the final delivery of the 18 over.
Gujarat Titans turned things around by getting rid of Washington Sundar, who was left out of the non-forward side, but the likes of Shashank and Marco Jansen had saved the best for last.
Getting his first proper opportunity to bat despite being in eleven in recent games, Shashank made the most of the opportunity and smashed three sixes against Ferguson, while Jansen also scored a high as 25 came out of the final and SRH finished with 195/ 6 in 20 overs.
Mohammed Shami (3/39), Yash Dayal (1/24), Alzarri Joseph (1/35) were the ground takers for Gujarat.
Short Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad — 195/6 in 20 Overs (Abhishek Sharma 65, Aiden Markram 56; Mohammed Shami 3/39) vs Gujarat Titans