Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) remove the question mark on their chances of reaching the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 playoffs. David Warner and Vijay Shankar made sure that SRH reach home and also the playoffs as they won their last league game against Gujarat Lions (GL) by 8 wickets. The Defending Champions pounded on minnows GL as they did not pose a threat to them. Warner-Shankar scored half-centuries despite few early wickets which SRH lost in the powerplay overs.
Chasing a lowly target of 155 at Kanpur, SRH lost early wickets of openers Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques. They were reduced to 25 for 2 in 3 overs. Surprisingly, SRH showed faith in Shankar who has only played a few matches in the season. Shankar repaid their faith by scoring 63 from 44 balls and taking his team home. Warner scored 69 from 52 balls and to everyone’s surprise his inning did not included a single boundary.
Only Praveen Kumar turned out to be a successful bowler for GL as he picked up the two wickets in the powerplay overs. Praveen ended his bowling figures with 2 for 22 in his quota of 4 overs. Warner finished the game with a boundary as SRH won the match with 11 balls to spare.
Earlier, GL openers Ishan Kishan and Dwayne Smith got off to a flier as they hammered SRH players all over the parkputting on 111 for the first wicket and scoring their respective quickfire half-centuries. But, then they suffered a batting collapse as 5 batsmen got out for a duck.
Mohammed Siraj and Rashid Khan got the breakthroughs and bundled out for GL in the last over. GL batsmen lost 10 wickets in a matter of just 43 runs. Siraj and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be on a hat-trick when they play in IPL 2017 playoffs. Siraj was also named as the ‘Man of the Match’ for his fiery second spell.
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