After their batters braved challenging conditions to put up a fighting total, the Gujarat Titans bowlers swung into action to flatten Sunrisers Hyderabad in a 82-run victory.
While Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar stood out with their gritty knocks with the bat, Kagiso Rabada (3/28) led the Titans’ attack with the ball as he bowled his four overs at one go to rattle the Sunrisers.
In reply to the Titans’ 168/5, the Sunrisers were bundled out for 86, their lowest IPL total, in 14.5 overs.
There was no respite for them as after Rabada’s spell, the in-form Jason Holder (3/20) took over and struck thrice as well, bowling a perfect length to shut the door on the visitors.
The Titans, with their fifth win on the trot, are at the top now, the first team to reach 16 points, with one foot in the playoffs.
Crafty knocks
Put into bat, the Titans lost skipper Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler early and were struggling at 34/2 after the Powerplay. Captain Pat Cummins (1/20) and young seamer Praful Hinge (2/17 in 3 overs), the Sunrisers’ find this season, gave little away in that period of play.
But Sudharsan (61 off 44 balls) and Washington (33-ball 50) forged a 60-run fourth-wicket stand, assuring the Titans — wearing lavender jerseys — of reaching a somewhat competitive total. Both batters deserve credit for adjusting to the nature of the pitch and showing fair application, especially with their judicious shot selection.
Washington stayed till the penultimate ball of the 20th over, which was key to the Titans’ piling up 100 runs off the last 10 overs of their innings.
Speed & length
In the first over of the chase, Mohammed Siraj landed a massive blow to the Sunrisers with the wicket of Travis Head. Rabada, thereafter, clocked high speeds consistently and hit the hard length relentlessly to account for Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Ravichandran Smaran in each of his first three overs.
With a bit of fortune, he could have had his fourth too, as his former Proteas teammate Heinrich Klaasen was at sea before falling to Holder. With 21 wickets, Rabada is now on a par with RCB’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the highest wicket-taker this season.
Holder, on his part, ensured to complement Rabada, bowling a length to which the Sunrisers had no answer.