Sun Rises in the end for Sunrisers Hyderabad and MI’s night continues

Sunrisers Hyderabad has had a mixed performance this IPL season in the UAE where they played 5 games to win two and loose three. The consistency of the batsmen has been a concern so has been the bowling which was their strength for years in the IPL now. But, according to us where they actually lacked is a leader, a team needs a skipper who leads them by example and surges the energy into the team.

SRH were up against the Mumbai Indians who are in a situation worse than theirs, having lost all 4 matches. SRH in to bat first loss two early wickets, skipper Shikhar Dhawan could not control his instinct an edged one from Zaheer Khan that left the left-hander to give an easy catch to Tare MI’s glove man. Aaron Finch, who has been in best form for SRH too fell cheaply and one could feel SRH struggling.

Then came Warner and Rahul the two replied to the wickets with boundaries striking some clear and fierce shots was Warner, took the responsibility and made sure he got his team to a score their bowlers could defend a high-speed 65 from him and stabilizing 46 by Rahul took the team total past 150. A few meaty blows by Darren Sammy and Naman Ojha’s sensible finish ensured SRH a score in access of 170.

Chasing 173 against one of the better bowling sides in the IPL, under lights and with the form MI batsmen are in gave them very little chance. Doing no harm to their already degrading reputation the batsmen had no answer to the pace and movement of Dale Steyn and swing of Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the two cleaned up Rohit and Anderson cheaply.

At the end of the power play over’s MI were struggling at 31 for 3, for a change Kieron Pollard who has otherwise had a silent tournament with the bat turned the game on picking Amit Mishra as the bowler he would target and hit 19 in the over and Karan Sharma the other spinner was treated in similar fashion.

Bhuvi maintained the pressure with tight bowling and Irfan Pathan in the 16^th over his 1^st in the match got rid of Ambati Rayudu who had started to look dangerous with Pollard at the other end, once he was out for 35 too much was left for the big man Pollard to do.

The 18^th and 19^th over’s were bowled by Steyn and Bhuvneshwar the two gave 4 & 7 runs respectively and picked up a wicket each. Pollard on strike Irfan had the ball for the 20^th over with 20 to save responding superbly to his captain’s faith Pathan clean bowled him on the very first ball an inside edge on to the stumps, trying to hit an incoming ball towards mid-on and that was it. Irfan continued to bowl in the block and in the end gave away only 4 runs to win the Match for SRH.

Though Warner’s batting was fascinating, Bhuvi’s effort with the ball stole the show and won him the Man of the Match award for his spell of 4- 0-17-2. SRH end the UAE leg with a win a game that should definitely boost their confidence, as the batting, bowling and fielding units came together to get them this win.

MI will be disappointed as they return back home without a win and a lot of doctoring required for them to get back to the winning ways. An exciting end to the 1^st stage of IPL which received a warm response from the UAE crowd and authorities.