Sunrisers Hyderabad broke Gujarat Titans’ three-match winning streak with an eight-wicket victory in the Indian Premier League. As soon as the Gujarat Titans were put in to bat, Hardik Pandya made 50, but that was not enough.
Captain Kane Williamson led from the front with a solid 57, and Nicholas Pooran added a late flourish to the victory. Williamson, who made his first 50 of the year in the chase, helped lead Sunrisers to victory in 19.1 overs.
The Sunrisers then won their second game in a row after beating the Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. It was the Titan’s first loss after a hat-trick of wins.
He and opener Abhishek Sharma (42 off 32 balls) put on 64 runs to lay the groundwork for the win. Williamson’s 46-ball innings had two fours and four sixes in it.
With Rahul Tripathi, who retired hurt on 17, Williamson made a 40-run stand to get closer to the win, but he was still hurt.
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After Williamson was out in the 17th over, Pooran (34 not out off 18 balls) hit a savage shot that sealed the deal. His innings looked: It was full of two fours and the same number of sixes. He hit a six to end the game, making his team 168-2 in 19.1 overs.
Two events changed the game. In the 13th over, he did this when he hit Hardik Pandya for two sixes in the middle. Then, in the 16th over, bowled by Lockie Ferguson, the Sunrisers captain hit a six and a boundary as the team was on its way to the goal.
After a poor top-order, Captain Pandya’s 50 not out of 42 balls helped Gujarat Titans reach 162 for 7.
Hardik was asked to bat, and he and David Miller (12) made a 40-run stand for the fourth wicket to help Gujarat fight back after the top three batters didn’t make much of a dent in their runs. Gujarat was 64/3 after eight overs.
When Hardik and Abhinav Mahonar, who cost the Titans Rs 2.60 crore, scored 35 off 21 balls, they ensured that the team reached the 150-run mark.
Manohar, who had three lives, hit five boundaries and one six in his short stay. In the 18th over, where Gujarat made 13 runs, he hit T Natarajan (2/34) with the ball, and he did it again and again.
However, it was a different kind of innings from Hardik. He played with caution and aggression to keep the innings going.
The “all-rounder” hit a straight drive off Natarajan to get his first boundary, and then he was brutal on Umran Malik (1/39), who hit two consecutive boundaries off in the eighth over, which earned him nine runs.
In the next over, he hit Aiden Markram for his only maximum over cow corner, but Hardik was alone as SRH kept hitting.
In the last five overs, the SRH attack kept Hardik at bay. They didn’t let him free his arms, so it was his slowest 50 in the IPL.
Thanks to a thick outside edge, Matthew Wade hit his first boundary in the first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/37) gave up 17 runs and 12 extras.
But Gujarat lost Wade (19), Shubman Gill (7), and Sai Sudarshan (11) very quickly.
When Rahul Tripathi caught Bhuvneshwar off Gill in the third over, he did a great one-handed dive to get the ball.
After he popped up to Kane Williamson at mid-off, Sudarshan, who looked rusty, was Natarajan’s first victim.
As soon as Wade tried to flick a fuller delivery from Malik in the eighth over, he was caught in front of the wicket. Wade had hit three boundaries, but he missed a flick.
Afterwards, it was Hardik and Manohar’s show as Gujarat added 82 runs in the last 10 overs.
