Mumbai: Kane Williamson's fifty and Nicholas Pooran's unbeaten 34 of 18 helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) overcome Gujarat Titans to register their second successive win in the Indian Premier League(IPL) match here at DY Patil Stadium on Monday.
Hardik Pandya's unbeaten fighting fifty and Abhinav Mukund's 35 of 21 balls guided Gujarat Titans to 162 for the loss of seven wickets.
In reply, SRH scored 168/2 and chased down the target with five balls to spare. Chasing 163, Sunrisers had a slow start as they scored just 11 runs in first four overs. Then, Abhishek Sharma shifted gears and hit four boundaries in the last over of the powerplay.
With 17 runs off the over SRH reached 42/0 in the powerplay. The duo stitched 64-run partnerships for the second wicket before Rashid Khan cleaned up in-form batter Sharma for the score of 42 in the ninth over.
Rahul Tripathi then joined skipper Williamson on the crease. Half-way through in their innings Sunrisers were 75/1. In the 13th over, Rahul Tripathi got retired hurt with what seemed to be a right calf niggle. He appeared to have suffered a bad case of cramps, forcing the physio to come in to examine him. He then walked out after a 40-run partnership with Williamson, Nicholas Pooran came to the crease in his place.
In the 16th over Williamson brought up his 18th IPL half-century. But soon after his fifty, Hardik Pandya removed him for the score of 57 off 46 balls. With two new batters on the crease -Pooran and Aiden Markram -SRH needed 28 off 18 balls to win.
Then, Pooran and Markram's unbeaten crucial 39-run partnership guided Sunrisers to register their second successive win with five balls to spare. Gujarat bowlers failed to showcased their fine form as Pandya and Rashid managed to scalp one wicket apiece.
Earlier batting first, Gujarat had a flying start as they scored 17 runs in the very first over but they lost three wickets in quick succession. Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave a big breakthrough to Sunrisers by replacing in-form Shubhman Gill cheaply for 7 in the third over.
In the sixth over, T Natarajan cleaned up Sai Sudharsan for the score of 11 and Gujarat were reduced to 57/2 in the powerplay. A couple of overs later Umran Malik got rid of Mathew Wade (19).
Then skipper Pandya and David Miller stabilised the innings with a 40-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Marco Jansen dismissed Miller (12).
After Miller's dismissal, Pandya and Mukund stitched a 50-run partnership to take Gujarat to a fighting total. After being dropped thrice, Mukund (35) was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar in the penultimate over.
With just two balls left in the innings, Rahul Tewatia got run-out and in the next ball Pandya brought up his fifth IPL fifty in 42 deliveries.
On the final ball Natarajan bowled Rashid Khan for a duck to restrict Titans to 162/7. While Bhuvneshwar and Natarajan bagged two wickets each, Jansen and Malik got one wicket apiece. (UNI)
