Hyderabad: Yusuf Pathan was the unlikely hero for Sunrisers Hyderabad as he smashed 27 runs of 12 balls to take his team to victory with 7 wickets to spare in the 36th match of the Indian Premier League played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday. Kane Williamson remained not-out on 32 runs. This victory also took SRH to top of the table.
Chasing 164 runs for victory, SRH openers Hales and Dhawan went after Daredevils bowling attack right from the word go. Hales got a lifeline when on 9 runs when Maxwell dropped an easy catch of Avesh Khan’s delivery.
Hales made use of the opportunity as he smashed bowlers all over the park. Khan suffered at hands of Shikhar Dhawan, who hit him for 27 runs in his second over as SRH looked like cruising to victory. The 76 run opening wicket stand was finally broken by leg spinner Amit Mishra. The leg spinner produced peach of a delivery to dismiss Alex Hales for 45 runs. Dhawan’s innings was also short lived as he was clean bowled by Mishra for 33 runs.
After Dhawan’s dismissal, SRH innings began to slow down as Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey found it hard to get boundaries. Both the batsmen kept on rotating strike to keep the scoreboard ticking.
As the match entered the final five over’s, both the batsman upped their antique. Avesh Khan yet again conceded 10 runs in the 16th over to make the match more interesting. Pandey innings was stopped on 21 runs after Prithvi Shaw took a brilliant catch of Plunkett’s bowling.
Yusuf Pathan received two lifeline after being dropped by Vijay Shankar, when on 0. He then survived an LBW appeal from DD after umpires decision was overturned after a review by the batsman. By DC
