Mohammed Siraj was named the player of the match for his special bowling performance. The Indian right-arm pacer picked up four wickets on his return to Hyderabad. Having played most of his life in the same city, Siraj was at his best. He picked up two wickets in the powerplay and pushed SRH on the back foot. Both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are two of the most dangerous batters.
Mohammed Siraj after being named the player of the match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru once again performed brilliantly against his former side. Coming back to his home ground, Siraj showed his knowledge about the pitch and conditions. He picked up two wickets in the powerplay. Both those wickets were pretty vital as Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma found it difficult to handle the swing from Siraj. He came on to bowl his fourth over in the penultimate over. Siraj picked up two more wickets including that of Aniket Verma.
Shubman Gill scored his first half-century of the season. The GT skipper led from the front and batted with great intent. The right-handed batter was at his very best which was showcased by his running between the wickets. He was exceptionally fast and when the boundaries had dried up in the initial overs, Gill took it upon himself to run those singles and doubles.
Once he was in touch with the pitch and the conditions, the 25-year-old played his shots. He remained unbeaten till the end and even hit the winning runs. Gill’s knock consisted of nine fours, including a scintillating off-drive against Pat Cummins.
Even though Washington Sundar could not score a fifty on his GT debut he still made a huge impact in the clash. The left-handed batter scored 49 runs after coming into bat in a tricky situation. The visitors had lost two wickets with only 16 runs on the board. However, Sundar took the attack on SRH bowlers and gave a fiery start to his knock. Against Simarjeet Singh in the last over of the powerplay, Sundar smashed a couple of fours and two sixes to make sure that GT bosses the first six overs of the chase.
Mohammed Siraj was on absolute fire bowling against his former team in his home ground. Siraj bowled with great accuracy and dismissed Travis Head in the very first over of the match. But he was not done yet and picked up Abhishek Sharma’s wicket in the powerplay itself. The pacer received a great deal of support from Sai Kishore and Prasidh Krishna. While Siraj picked up four wickets, both Kishore and Krishna picked up two each. The 12 overs from these three accounted for eight wickets while giving away only 66 runs.
For Sunrisers Hyderabad, it was once again a disappointing batting performance. Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored with 31 runs. The only significant batting performance came from the bat of Pat Cummins. The SRH skipper remained unbeaten and scored 22 runs in only nine deliveries.
Like the first innings, the second innings too proved to be a no-contest between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Skipper, Shubman Gill returned to form and scored his first half-century of the season. He top-scored with 61 runs and remained unbeaten to hit the winning runs. Washington Sundar marking his debut played a great 49-run knock off 29 deliveries. He came to bat when GT had lost two wickets for only 16 runs on the board. Sherfane Rutherford coming off as an impact sub sealed the win with a 16-ball 35-run knock consisting of six fours and a six.
Mohammed Shami too made a comeback in the 18th season of the IPL. The veteran Indian pacer was the lone warrior for the Orange Army with the ball in hand. He picked up two wickets but did not receive much support from the opposite end as the hosts lost the match by seven wickets.
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