HYDERABAD, Apr 6:
Skipper Shubman Gill led by example with a classy half-century after Mohammed Siraj bowled with fire in his belly to return excellent figures of 4/17 as Gujarat Titans crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in their IPL match here on Sunday.
Sent at number four, Washington Sundar too showed his class with a 29-ball 49 as GT registered their third win in four outings, even as SRH suffered their fourth defeat in five matches.
The chase of 153 was completed with as many as 20 balls to spare, with Gill making an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls.
Bowling first, GT restricted SHR to 152 for eight with left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2/24) and seamer Prasidh Krishna (2/25) too performing admirably on a slow surface.
Mohammed Shami (2/28) and Pat Cummins (1/26) brought SRH back into the contest with their early strikes as GT found themselves at a tricky 16 for two in the fourth over.
B Sai Sudharsan (5) could not keep his shot down and was caught at square leg off Shami, and Cummins then dismissed Jos Buttler for a three-ball duck with a back of a length delivery that nipped back in sharply, and Heinrich Klaasen did the rest behind the stumps.
The two wickets gave SRH a glimmer of hope but skipper Shubman Gill and Washington Sundar joined forces to stitch a third-wicket partnership of 90 runs to pave the way for their team’s win.
Helping the GT duo to get their innings up and running after the early wobble was a horrendous sixth over from pacer Simarjeet Singh, who conceded 20 runs to ease the pressure on the visitors.
Simarjeet was guilty of repeatedly bowling short and Washington took full advantage of it by pulling and hooking him for two sixes over fine leg after collecting two fours.
Gill was all class reaching his half-century in 36 balls with the help of some delightful shots but Washington got out one short of what would have been a well-deserved fifty.
A flurry of boundaries from Sherfane Rutherford (35 not out off 16 balls) then helped GT finish the game with plenty to spare.
Earlier, Siraj dismissed struggling openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma cheaply before coming back to add two more wickets to his tally.
Head (8) had a fortuitous start as his edge off Siraj went past the stumps for a boundary.
However, Siraj had the last laugh as the pacer got rid of the danger man from Australia when the opener flicked one for Sai Sudharsan to complete a smart diving catch at mid-wicket.
The crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium found their voice after a few boundaries.
Siraj, however, had other ideas as the pumped-up seamer sent back Abhishek after the batter took the aerial route but failed to get the timing right and was caught at mid-on. (PTI)
BRIEF SCORES:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 31; Mohammed Siraj 4/17).
Gujarat Titans: 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61 not out; Mohammed Shami 2/18)
TODAY’S FIXTURE
Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Wankhede, (7.30 PM)
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