Mumbai, April 28: Sensational batting by Rahul Tewatia (40 not out of 21) and Rashid Khan (31 not out of 11) in slog overs beat pacemaker maiden fife Umran Malik (5/25) as Gujarat Titans beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in an exciting IPL 2022 match at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Wednesday.
Invited to bat first, brilliant fifties from Abhishek Sharma (65 for 42), Aiden Markram (56 for 40) and a late blitz from Shashank Singh (25 not for 6) propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to 195/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing a grand total, Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill got Gujarat off to a flying start. Saha, in particular, was very aggressive and spread around the edge, taking his team 59/0 at the end of the power play.
It was Umran Malik who gave SRH their first big breakthrough by taking out Shubman Gill (22) on the fourth ball of the eighth. On the next ball, he hit Hardik Pandya in the shoulder with lightning. In his second over, Umran again upset Hardik (10) and finally dismissed the Gujarat captain with a short ball.
Both sides did not want to give an iota to their opposition in the middle stage, GT had made it to 91 for 2 with Saha and David Miller in the crease. While Malik was stealing all the limelight with his great pace, Saha continued his good work with the bat for Gujarat as he hit 28 balls out of fifty.
Just when it seemed like Saha and David had brought GT back into the game, Malik pocketed his wicket by firing Saha. Saha (68 of 38) couldn’t get a yorker out of Malik, leaving GT at 122/3, needing a further 74 on 40. Umran completed his GT batting order demolition job in his final when he outplayed David Miller and Abhinav . Manohar in consecutive deliveries to record his first five-wicket haul in the IPL.
Gujarat were in trouble at 140/5 after 16 overs with Tewatia and Rasid in the middle. The duo went on to break up a series of shots to open the game. With 35 needed from 12 balls, southpaw Tewatia used the left arm angle to his advantage hitting T Natarajan for a limit-and-six – slow sweep over the cow’s corner.
Gujarat needed 22 runs in the latter part of the innings and Tewatia started on the right note hitting Marco Jansen in the deep midwicket for another six but could only single out the next ball. Rashid then showed off his pyrotechnics and managed to smash three sixes on all four balls to get his team to victory lane.
Earlier, invited 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) lost to Gujarat Titans 199/5 in 20 Overs (Wriddhiman Saha 68, Rahul Tewatia 40 out; Umran Malik 5/25) for 5 terranes