TWO IN A ROW FOR SUNRISERS
Skipper Rahul and Hooda’s half centuries and Avesh Khan’s 4-24 lifts LSG to a comfortable 12-run victory over Kane Williamson’s Hyderabad
It was back-to-back defeats for Sunrisers Hyderabad, who fell 12 runs short of Lucknow Super Giants’ score of 169-7 in an Indian Premier League (IPL) game at Navi Mumbai on Monday. Sunrisers batsman Rahul Tripathi (44) did offer some fight but once he was back in the pavilion, things didn’t go as planned for the Hyderabad outfit. They eventually folded up at 157-9 in their 20 overs.
Earlier skipper KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda struck useful half-centuries and lifted Lucknow Super Giants to 169 for seven after a disastrous start against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
After his team lost three wickets for just 27 runs in the powerplay, Rahul (68 off 50 balls) found an able ally in Deepak Hooda (51 off 33 balls) and added 87 runs for the fourth wicket to revive the innings.
Rahul hit six fours and a six, while Hooda found the fence
three times and also cleared it thrice.
Coming back from a long break after playing their opener last Tuesday, SRH made a dream start and left the Super Giants in all sorts of trouble early on.
Making a strong comeback after the pounding in his team's heavy defeat against Rajasthan Royals, Washington
Sundar (2-28) was handed the new ball and he delivered in his very first over, and SRH's second, dismissing the dangerous Quinton de Kock with his off-break bowling on a grassy pitch that prompted Kane Williamson to put two slips when Bhuvneshwar Kumar started the proceedings.
Backed to bowl in the powerplay despite going for plenty in the previous game, Washington got de Kock (1) to chip one to Williamson at cover.
Few moments later, Washington had Evin Lewis (1) trapped in front of the wicket after the swashbuckling West Indian batter failed to execute his slog sweep. It was another huge wicket for SRH given Lewis' blazing, match-winning against Chennai Super Kings last Thursday.
Manish Pandey struck Romario Shepherd for a four and a six but then, going for one too many, ended up lobbing a catch to mid-on in the same over to leave LSG in a spot of bother.
Spurred by the early success, Williamson effected bowling changes frequently but he may have delayed by at least an over in introducing the attacking T Natarajan.
BRIEF SCORES: LSG 169-7 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 68, Deepak Hooda 51; T Natarajan 2-26, W Sundar 2-28) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 157-9 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 44, Nicholas Pooran 34; Krunal Pandya 2-27, Avesh Khan 4-24) by 12 runs.