Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a sterling bowling display and restricted Gujarat Titans to 162 for 7 in their encounter at the DY Patil Stadium here on Monday. Titans just couldn’t get going at full tilt against the Sunrisers attack on a track that afforded good bounce after being asked to take first strike.
This was after Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had provided the opponents a flying start with a string of wides in the opening over that yielded 17 runs, including 11 runs in wides. At the time of going to press, SRH were 42 for no loss in six overs with left-hander Abhishek Sharma (24) and skipper Kane Williamson (18) at the crease.
Skipper Hardik Pandya made an unbeaten 50 in 42 balls, but was not allowed to free his hands and clout the ball as is his wont by some well-directed and clever bowling. Pandya was the fulcrum around which the Titans, the only unbeaten outfit in the IPL thus far with three wins out of three, built their innings around. Coming to the crease at the fall of the second Titans wicket with 47 on board in the sixth over, Pandya saw the departure of opener Matthew Wade 17 runs later.
He then stitched together partnerships of 40 with David Miller, who made an unconvincing 12, for the fourth wicket to take the score past the 100 mark and 51 for the fifth wicket with Abhinav Manohar, who lived a charmed life in making 35 in 21 balls with the help of three dropped catches.
Manohar struck five fours and one six off T Natarajan, only the second in the innings after Pandya’s hoick for maximum off Aiden Markram. Earlier, in-form opener Shubman Gill fell cheaply driving Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to Rahul Tripathi who brought off a fine left-handed catch at covers. Youngster Sai Sudharsan too didn’t last long and spooned a drive on the up to rival captain Kane Williamson off Natarajan in the last over of power play with 47 on the board.
With Wade too departing two overs later at 64, Pandya was left with first consolidating the innings. The Titans were 80 for 3 at the halfway stage of the innings and were held on a tight leash by Sunrisers. The last two overs yielded only 14 runs with Natarajan even getting his second wicket off the last ball to end up with 2 for 34.
Brief scores
GT 162-7 in 20 overs (H Pandya 50*, A Manohar 35; T Natarajan 2-34, B Kumar 2-37) v SRH (scores incomplete)
