Navi Mumbai: A measured half-century by captain Kane Williamson sealed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s eight-wicket win over Gujarat Titans at the D.Y Patil Stadium to record their second successive win of the tournament.
After the bowlers conceded 44 runs and took three wickets in the last five overs to restrict Gujarat to 162/7, Williamson led the chase with 57 off 46 balls, laced with two fours and four sixes and found support coming from Abhishek Sharma’s 42 and Nicholas Pooran doing the finishing job with an unbeaten 34.
The chase began with Williamson beaten on the inside edge off Mohammed Shami and was struck on pads. Hardik Pandya consulted keeper Matthew Wade but eventually didn’t go for a review. But replays later showed that Williamson would have been out.
Hyderabad’s slow start of 11 runs in the first four overs changed dramatically with Williamson pulling Shami for a four and six off the first two balls of the fifth over. Sharma took on Lockie Ferguson, smashing four glorious boundaries through off-side as Hyderabad took 31 runs off the last two overs of power-play.
Sharma slammed Rashid Khan for boundaries through extra cover and backward point. But the leg-spinner bounced back by breaking the 64-run opening stand as Sharma holed out to deep mid-wicket.
Williamson, who had conserved all his energy till the 12th over, slammed Pandya for pulled back-to-back sixes to take 16 runs off the over. After hitting a six off Rahul Tewatia, Rahul Tripathi had to retire hurt due to muscle cramps in his leg.
But it didn’t deter Hyderabad as Williamson reached his fifty in 42 balls by moving across and using the pace of the ball off Ferguson to scoop over short fine leg. He followed it up with a crisp drive through the gap between cover and mid-off.
But in the next over, Williamson skied an off-cutter from Pandya straight to mid-on. Ferguson’s horror night went worse as he dropped a tough chance of Nicholas Pooran off his own bowling. He was then punished by the left-handed batter for straying twice in his line, flicked through fine leg for four followed by a picked-up six over fine leg.
Pooran then went for a pull off Shami but the top-edge sailed over Wade’s head for four before Aiden Markram levelled the scores with a crisp drive down the ground. Pooran finished off the chase with a majestic pull off Nalkande over backward square leg fence to end Gujarat’s clean slate in the tournament.
Brief scores: Gujarat Titans 162/7 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 50 not out, Abhinav Manohar 35; T Natarajan 2/34, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/37) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (Kane Williamson 57, Abhishek Sharma 42; Hardik Pandya 1/27, Rashid Khan 1/28)
–IANS
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