Skipper Shubman Gill and paceman Mohammed Siraj led the Gujarat Titans to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad with 20 balls to spare in their Tata IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Gill struck a classy half-century to lead his team’s run chase, while Siraj claimed his best figures in the IPL to take 4-17 off his four overs.
It was the Titans’ fourth consecutive win and the Sunrisers’ fourth successive defeat, resulting in the former going to the top of the table and the latter remaining at the bottom of the log with two points after five matches.
Facing a moderate first innings total of 152 for eight, Sunrisers began their defence of their total convincingly, with Pat Cummins and Mohammed Shami bowling with intensity and good discipline as they claimed a wicket apiece in the power play. Sai Sudharsan mistimed a hook to square leg off Shami while Cummins bowled a beauty that jagged back at Jos Buttler who got an inside edge to wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen, with the Englishman departing for a duck.
Opener Gill, however, played with the coolest of heads, taking no risks and playing conventional strokes as he and a more aggressive Washington Sundar (49 off 29 balls) made what initially seemed like a tricky task into a comfortable ride as they added 90 off 56 balls to set up the innings.
Although Washington was caught low down at deep point on the cusp of a half-century, West Indian Sherfane Rutherford powered the Titans to victory with a scintillating unbeaten 35 in just 16 balls (6x4s and a six) as he helped the imperturbable Gill to their goal in 16.4 overs.
The skipper played the perfect knock in the circumstances, striking nine fours in his 43-ball 61 – including arguably the shot of the innings, a cover drive on the up off Cummins for four – as the visitors continued their good run of form.
ILL-DISCIPLINED BOWLING
Aside from Cummins and Shami at the top of the innings, the Sunrisers didn’t make life easy for themselves with some ill-disciplined bowling that made the Titans’ task that much easier.
Earlier, Sunrisers got off to a poor start on a slower-than-usual Hyderabad pitch. Travis Head clipped Siraj to midwicket while the fast bowler also claimed the scalp of his fellow opener, Abhishek Sharma, who mistimed a lofted drive to mid-on. The in-form Ishan Kishan then mistimed a hook to fine-leg to leave the home team struggling on 50 for three in the eighth over.
Klaasen and Nitish Reddy added 50 for the fourth wicket before Klaasen was undone by a faster arm ball from left-arm spinner Sai Kishore that knocked back his leg stump as he went to pull the ball. Reddy was also guilty of mistiming an aggressive shot, holing out to midwicket off the same bowler who finished with the excellent figures of 2-24 in his four overs.
In the end it took a late cameo from Sunrisers’ skipper Cummins (22* off nine balls) to take Sunrisers to their total.
The star of the show with the ball for the visitors, however, was Siraj, who bowled superbly to claim his lifetime best figures in the IPL.
SURISERS HYDERABAD: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Patrick Cummns (capt), Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami
GUJURAT TITANS: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Washington Sundar, Sai Kishore