David Warner and Moises Henriques slammed unbeaten half-centuries after young Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan picked up three wickets to help champions Sunrisers Hyderabad thrash Gujarat Lions by nine wickets in the sixth match of the Indian Premier League in Hyderabad, on Sunday.
Scorecard
Electing to field, Sunrisers restricted Gujarat Lions to 135 for seven with Rashid claiming superb figures of three for 19 in four overs. He rattled the Lions top-order with wickets of Brendon McCullum (5), Aaron Finch (3) and skipper Suresh Raina (5) in successive overs.
Sunrisers dominated with the bat as Warner smashed 76 from 45 balls, while Henriques hit an unbeaten 52 from 39 balls to help the hosts chase the target with ease with 27 deliveries remaining.
Lions never recovered from the setbacks even though Dinesh Karthik (30) and Dwayne Smith (37) added 56 runs for the fifth wicket to stem the rot.
But it was the damage done by the Afghan leg-spinner that spelt doom for Raina and his men.
McCullum was dimissed trying to sweep a googly while Raina played for the wrong one only to be fooled by an orthodox leg-break.
The hard-hitting Finch also failed to read a googly and in the process, was trapped plumb in-front.
He looked dangerous during his entire spell bowling as many 11 dot balls in four overs.
Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/21 in 4 overs) and Ashish Nehra (1/27 in 4 overs) also chipped in with wickets at regular intervals.
Opener Jason Roy stroked a quickfire 31 off 21 balls to give Gujarat a brisk start before a mistimed pull shot off Bhuvneshwar brought his downfall.
Tottering at 57 for four, it wasn’t easy for Karthik and Smith to pull things back with an attacking display as there weren’t too many reputed batsmen left after them.
Karthik was uncharacteristically slow scoring 30 off 32 balls with two boundaries while Smith shot four boundaries and a six in 27 balls.
In the end, both were out in quick succession of each other and Lions finished with a sub-par total.
Source: Rediff