The article speaks about the success of Sunrisers Hyderabad against Gujarat Lions in a clash in Rajkot. It was a one-sided match. Sunrisers Hyderabad outplayed Gujarat Lions in all the departments.

On 21st April, 2016, Sunrisers Hyderabad met Gujarat Lions in the clash at Rajkot. Before this match, Gujarat Lions won all the three matches and were unbeaten. Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field first.

 

Gujarat Lions had a dismal start. Finch got bowled out in one of the inswingers of Bhubaneswar Kumar for a duck. Gujarat Lions started the innings with the score zero for the loss of one wicket. From there the team could not recover anymore.

McCullum did hit an over-boundary but most of his shots were mistimed ones. He scored 18 runs and got out caught in the deep square leg in the ball of Bipul Sharma.

 

Only Suresh Raina timed the balls brilliantly. He scored half century in 34 balls with six boundaries. He got out in his 70s but the problem of Gujarat Lions was that they went on losing wickets at regular intervals. Dinesh Kartik, Dwane Bravo all of them lost their wickets cheaply and that created pressure on the middle order.

 

 

Captain Suresh Raina came to the rescue of Gujarat Lions. He scored 50 runs in 34 balls with six boundaries. He timed his shots accurately from the very beginning. While Bhubaneswar Kumar was economical, the early spell of Sran was expensive. Bhubaneswar Kumar gave 14 runs in his first 2 overs. Henriques gave only 10 runs in his first 2 overs. Dinesh Kartik was not comfortable. He got out also early.

 

Gujarat Lions were 91 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 13 overs with Suresh Raina and Dwanye Bravo in the crease. But Sran made a comeback by taking the wicket of Dwanye Bravo caught out by Bhubaneswar Kumar in the deep square leg. Bravo mistimed the shot and tried to loft it. He scored only 8 runs out of 12 balls.

 

In the previous 3 matches Gujarat Lions chased the scores. In the match on 21st April, 2016, for the first time Gujarat Lions batted first. The reason of their success is due to their bowling. In the previous matches the bowling of Bravo, Faulkner, Ravindra Jadeja were very effective. On Thursday’s match, Dale Steyn replaced Faulkner. After 14 overs, Gujarat Lions were 95 for the loss of 4 wickets.

 

Mustafizur Rehman was brought into the attack in the second spell in the 15th over. Raina hit a boundary straight back in the third ball of Mustafizur’s over. After 15 overs, Gujarat Lions were 104 for the loss of 4 wickets. Bhubaneswar Kumar gave 2 wides in his 3rd over. Jadeja tried to force the issue but got bowled out in the ball of Mustafizur Rehman. He scored 14 runs of 14 balls before getting out.

 

 

Initially Mustafizur Rehman bowled only one over in his first spell. But after 14 overs he was brought back for his second spell, where his slow deliveries, Yorkers created huge problems for Gujarat Lions. Bhubaneshwar Kumar finally got 4 wickets and he destroyed the middle order of Gujarat Lions in his final spell. Ultimately Gujarat Lions scored are very small total of 135 runs in 20 overs.

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad made a mockery of the total. David Warner came out with a murdering mood. He went on hitting boundaries after boundaries and all the bowlers of Gujarat Lions went for huge number of runs including Praveen Kumar, Dale Steyn, Bravo and others. Shikhar Dhawan took his time in the crease, went on playing cricketing shots and scored a half-century. By the time Ravindra Jadeja came in his first spell the match was almost won by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Sunrisers Hyderabad won the match with ten wickets. It was a very one-sided match.

 

After the first week of IPL, the potentiality of all the teams had been manifested. Kolkata Knight Riders had remained the best bowling side of the tournament. There is maximum variation in the team. Morne Morkel is one of the fast bowlers of Kolkata Knight Riders who is known for his bouncy deliveries. He had been more effective in Indian conditions than Dale Steyn. Umesh Yadav, the other fast bowler had bowled wicket to wicket and did not give away cheap runs.

 

Kolkata Knight Riders has the best spinning unit in the country. Sunil Narine had been the best bowler of IPL over the last 4 overs. He hardly gave more than 15 runs in his four overs and went on picking up wickets. Shakib Al Hassan, the Bangladeshi spinner had shown his variation in spin over the years. Piyush Chawla is the best leg-spinner of the country. His googlies had regularly fooled the batsmen. Kolkata Knight Riders has lost only one match so far. The batting unit had performed well also. Gautam Gambhir and Robin Utthappa had regularly given steady starts of over 60 to 70 runs which had eased out the pressure of the middle –order batsmen. Gautam Gambhir had scored two half-centuries and is in fine nick. Manish Pandey and Andre Russel had done wonders with the bat so far. Russel’s hard-hitting capabilities are known across the world and he had been a winning hand in the recently completed T20 World Cup where West Indies were the champions. Shakib Al Hassan and Yusuf Pathan also contributed well with the bat till now.

 

Mumbai Indians is the other team who have huge potentiality with the bat but had not exhibited it till now. Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel had opened the innings a number of times. Rohit Sharma scored 62 runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and showed his skills. In the middle-order there had been blasts of Keiron Pollard and Buttler. Both are capable of making huge hits. In the first few matches, Pollard was out of form, but in the match against Kings Eleven Punjab, he scored 39 unbeaten with more than 4 huge over-boundaries.  In the slog overs Mumbai Indians have the luxury of pinch hitters like K Pandya and Hardik Pandya. Both the brothers had been very useful both with the bat and the ball.

 

Royal Challengers Bengaluru had been a sleeping giant. They have the best batting line up of the tournament but due to mediocre bowling the batting efforts are getting unrewarded. Gayle and Virat Kohli are probably the best opening pairs of the tournament. Although Virat Kohli had hit half-centuries, Gayle did not played to his potential till now. Gayle recently became father of a son and went back to West Indies and will join the team later. De Villiers and other batsmen contributed well and if the batting clicks they are a side who will hardly lose a match.

 

Kings Eleven Punjab had struggled in the first half of IPL due to bad form of two big hitters Miller and Maxwell. Miller being the captain of the team had hardly performed in the IPL till now.  Vijay and Vohra had given good starts but due to failure of the middle-order Kings Eleven Punjab had landed in the bottom four of the tournament.

 

Pune Warriors had done well with the bat in the recent matches. Ajinkya Rahane and Duplessis had performed well in the previous matches. Dhoni also had done well as a finisher in the earlier matches. But the bowling attack of Ravinchandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Ishant Sharma will be tested a lot against the good batsmen in batting friendly wickets like Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, or Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

 

The orange cap had been shared either by Gautam Gambhir or by David Warner as they had been the most consistent batsmen in the tournament so far. The purple cap has been won by Bhubaneswar Kumar so far because he had captured most number of wickets so far. As the tournament progresses it is important to see how the spinners and eminent pacers compete for the purple cap.