Ahmedabad: Veteran fast-bowler Mohit Sharma picked a brilliant 3-25 to lead a good bowling show for the Gujarat Titans in restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to 162/8 in 20 overs of the IPL 2024 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday.
Mohit was impressive with his cutters and slower deliveries, including offering great control in the back end of the innings to keep SRH to a decent total on a slightly two-paced black soil pitch. He was also well-supported by Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Umesh Yadav taking one wicket each.
For SRH, all of their top seven batters made beyond 15, but none of them could go past 30. Abdul Samad and Abhishek Sharma made 29 each, as the duo became the highest individual scorers for the visitors in an innings where they made only 40 runs in the last five overs.
Electing to bat first, Travis Head and Mayank Agarwal hit five boundaries between themselves, before the latter was cramped for room and swivel-pulled straight to deep square off Omarzai in the fifth over, falling for a 17-ball 16.
Abhishek, fresh off a 16-ball fifty against Mumbai Indians, began by nailing a pulled four off Omarzai, before smacking back-to-back sixes against Rashid to take SRH to 56/1 at the end of power-play.
But GT bounced back as Travis Head missed a slog off Noor and was castled for 19 off 14 balls. Three overs later, with Noor keeping things tight, Abhishek fell for 29 off 20 balls when he mistimed a punch to cover off Mohit. The in-form Heinrich Klaasen started in style by glancing an on-pads delivery from Noor for four, before clubbing Noor for back-to-back sixes over deep mid-wicket fence. His fun under the sun ended at 24 off 13 balls when he missed a skiddy full delivery while trying to pull off Rashid and was castled.
Shortly after, Aiden Markram holed out to long-on off Umesh after his lofted on-drive was caught by Rashid sliding in to leave SRH in trouble. Samad dealt in fours while Shahbaz Ahmed hit nicely timed sixes in their crucial 45-run stand-off 28 balls for the sixth wicket. But Mohit had Ahmed holing out to long-on off a slower delivery and impact player Washington Sundar pulling straight to deep mid-wicket on consecutive deliveries in the final over, conceding only three runs and ending with Samad’s run-out.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/8 in 20 overs (Abdul Samad 29, Abhishek Sharma 29; Mohit Sharma 3-25, Azmatullah Omarzai 1-24) against Gujarat Titans
–IANS
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