Sunrisers Hyderabad made the most of a poor show by Gujarat Titans bowlers, Rashid Khan (0-45) and Lockie Ferguson (0-52), clobbering them for nearly 100 runs to end up posting 195-6 in their 20 overs at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday night. At the time of going to press, the Titans were 73-1 after eight overs.
Earlier, half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (65) and Aiden Markram (56) set the platform for SRH to go big. And though they lost four wickets in 20 balls towards the end of their innings, the emergence of Mumbai boy Shashank Singh was inspiring. Shashank helped SRH’s late surge with an unbeaten 25 off just six balls.
Getting to bat for the first time in six games, Shashank made full use of the opportunity. He first clobbered Alzarri Joseph for a lofted cover drive to the boundary off the first ball he faced. Then he smashed three consecutive sixes off Ferguson off the last three balls of the innings, taking 25 off the final over.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami (3-39) once again proved to be Kane Williamson’s nemesis as the GT pacer dismissed the Kiwi great for the fifth time in T20s with a peach of a delivery that swung in to breach the gap between the bat and pad.
Rahul Tripathi (16 off 10 balls) soon perished after smashing Shami for a six and two consecutive boundaries in his third over. Shami managed to successfully overturn the on-field umpire’s LBW decision via DRS. It was Shami’s eighth wicket in the Powerplay—the most by any bowler in this IPL.
Abhishek then took on Rashid fearlessly. A six over long-on after going down on one keen was the highlight of his innings. He hit for two more sixes later to bring up his second half-century of the tournament. Abhishek and Aiden Markram carefully rebuilt SRH’s innings with the latter bringing up the 50-run partnership with sheer muscle power off Joseph.
Brief scores
SRH 195-6 (A Sharma 65, A Markram 56; M Shami 3-39) v GT (scores incomplete)
