Disappointing End to a Great Start
On May 14th, 2014, the
Sunrisers Hyderabad team faced off against the red-hot Kings XI Punjab. The
Sunrisers were in the bottom half of the points table, while Punjab were second
after Chennai Super Kings. The Sunrisers needed a win to boost them into the
top half of the table while the Kings XI needed to win to push them ahead of
Chennai. This was an important match for both of the teams.
The match
was at the Sunrisers’ home ground Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal. The
stadium was filled with orange flags, which is the theme color of the
Sunrisers. To make the atmosphere even more electric, actor Venkatesh also attended
the match, supporting, of course, the Sunrisers.
The
match started off with a bang, with the captain of Punjab, George Bailey, winning
the toss and electing to bowl first. They had made one change, bringing in the
young spinner, Shivam Sharma, in for the out of form Parvinder Awana. Sunrisers
openers, Aaron Finch and Shikhar Dhawan, walked out to the middle in a stylish
manner. The crowd roared. The first over produced just six runs with Sandeep
Sharma bowling some great swingers.
At the
end of the third over, Sunrisers were looking rusty at eighteen runs for no
loss. However, the fifth over of the match changed the equation. From 23 to 49
in one over! Wow! The first ball was a no ball and Dhawan was given a chance as
he was caught by the slip. However, the only way to claim a wicket of a no ball
is to get a run out. The next 6 deliveries produced 4 fours and 1 six from
Dhawan and Sandeep Sharma was almost crying at the end of it.
The first
wicket came in the ninth over when Shivam Sharma bowled a beautiful off-spinner
to clean up Aaron Finch’s stumps. This was the breakthrough that the Kings XI
Punjab were looking for. The next wicket comes when Rishi Dhawan, the bowler,
tosses up a ball to Shikhar Dhawan, the batsmen, presenting a tough catch for
Shivam Sharma who takes it with ease. Dhawan was looking good on 45, but in the
end threw away his wicket.
The
rest of the overs were dominated by the Sunrisers with Naman Ojha and David
Warner hitting at least 11 runs per over. They thrashed every bowler of the
Punjab line up and took a liking to hitting sixes off the two spinners, Akshar
Patel and Shivam Sharma. Punjab took some reprise when David Warner was run out
due to poor communication between him and Naman Ojha. However, Ojha carried on
the damage and went to a brisk 79 of just 38 deliveries. It was the best knock
of the match. It took the Sunrisers Hyderabad to an extremely defendable total
of 205.
However,
the next innings was completely dominated by Punjab who easily chased down the
total in 18.3 overs with 9 balls to spare. Their openers hit a boundary of the
first ball, but then Sehwag got out to a good delivery from Bhuveneshwar Kumar.
However, the batsmen, Wriddhiman Saha and Manan Vohra took the game out of the
reach of Sunrisers. Maxwell, Miller, and George Bailey provided a great finish
to the innings as Sunrisers strength, their bowling, was punished. All of the
bowlers were wayward in line and length and gave easy shots to the Punjab
batting.
The
fans of the Sunrisers had mostly given up hope and went home disappointed after
a great batting performance. They would have backed themselves to defend this
total of 200+.
