Gujarat Lions came in to this match as the only team that has not lost yet in this IPL, but went out dejected by a superb Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rajkot played the perfect host to the visitors; Hyderabad. It served them victory on a platter. It was as easy as it gets as Hyderabad overhauled the Lions with all 10 wickets in hand.
And yes, the chase mania continues. Hyderabad wins the toss, elects to chase and wins.
Gujarat Lions were no way near what they played in their previous 3 matches.
Gujarat Lions came out to bat with openers Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum. Finch who has been the main stay of Lion’s batting and their leading run scorer so far, could not read a Bhuvneshwar Delivery that castled his stumps in the very first over of the match, with the team yet to score. Raina joined McCullum and started swiftly.
McCullum was uncharacteristically slow as he scored just 18 off 17 balls before being dismissed to spinner Bipul Sharma. Raina continued to play strokes around the regularly falling wickets at the other end.
No batsmen contributed much with Raina top scoring with 75 runs off just 51 balls. Hyderabad took control of the match completely by strangling the Gujarat batsmen for runs. Gujarat Lions scored just 135 for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs. The score was way below par and far from a fighting one. Bhuvneshwar was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 29 off his quota of 4 overs.
The Sunrisers innings was the complete opposite from the Lions. They took control from the first ball and never let away.
Warner continued from where he left his previous innings (a match winning 90 not out) and blasted all the bowlers who came on. They scored at more than 10 runs an over in the power play with Warner scoring heavily while Dhawan tried to get his feet in. They kept rolling till they reached the target in just 14.5 overs. Warner unbeaten on 74 off 48 balls and Dhawan scoring 53 not out from 41 balls. This is the biggest win amongst any teams this season.
Winning by 10 wickets with more than 5 overs to spare against one of the strongest sides in the tournament, has to be a really special effort from the Sunrisers.
Gujarat would like to shake it off as an odd bad day but for Sunrisers, this is a moral booster. Consecutive wins and Dhawan back amongst runs would add to their confidence immensely. With all teams getting even, the tournament looks to be more and more interesting.