Shikhar Dhawan scored an unbeaten 47 as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Gujarat Lions by five wickets in their Indian Premier League clash at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday.
With this victory, Hyderabad rose to the fourth spot from their fifth place while Gujarat managed to retain their second spot in the points table.
Chasing a 127-run victory target, Dhawan held the Hyderabad innings together and along with Naman Ojha took the hosts over the finish line. Dhawan's patient knock came off 40 balls and was studded with six hits to the fence as the left-handed opener carried his bat through the innings to chase down the target with an over to spare.
David Warner smashed two sixes and a four in his 17-ball 24 before Dhawal Kulkarni had the Hyderabad captain caught by Praveen Kumar at mid-off and in the next over Dwayne Smith took a fine catch in the covers to dismiss Kane Williamson off Praveen to place Hyderabad at 33/2 in 4.5 overs.
Dinesh Karthik took a good catch diving to his left for the scalp of Moises Henriques off Dwayne Bravo and that brought Yuvraj Singh to the crease. Playing his first match in this season, Yuvraj looked miserably out of touch and the two-paced wicket added to his misery. Trying to break the shackles with a big hit, Yuvraj was caught at the cover fence by Pradeep Sangwan off Kulkarni.
Bravo took his second wicket when Deepak Hooda gloved a short delivery straight into the hands of Karthik.
Earlier, the five-pronged pace attack worked wonders for Sunrisers Hyderabad as the David Warner-led side restricted debutants Gujarat Lions to 126/6.
It was Aaron Finch's unbeaten 51 that gave Gujarat some respectability as none of the other batsmen showed neither application nor any patience to get their eye in and play according to the situation. Finch in the end ran out of partners in his knock that came off 42 balls with the help of a six and three fours. Finch was dropped by Warner off Henriques when he was on 31 and it was his score that gave Gujarat bowlers some runs to bowl with.
Warner won the toss in helpful conditions and as has been the trend this season, asked Gujarat to bat first. And Bhuvneshwar Kumar justified his decision by dismissing Dwayne Smith in the third over by having him caught by Mustafizur Rahman at short third man. Gujarat captain Suresh Raina promoted himself up the order but failed to deliver as he played a Bhuvneshwar delivery a bit early to give his statemate a simple return catch in his next over to leave his team at 24/2 in 5 overs.
Kane Williamson then took a brilliant one-handed catch at gully to dismiss Dinesh Karthik off Mustafizur. Karthik opened the face of his bat a bit to a slower delivery that was bowled wide of the crease by the Bangladesh pacer, as Williamson dived to his left and got his fingers just underneath the ball. The dismissal was so close that it needed the third umpire to adjudge Karthik out for a duck.
Warner took a good running catch at long-off to send his Trans Tasman rival Brendon McCullum (7) back to the hut off the bowling of Moises Henriques to reduce Gujarat to 34/4.
Dwayne Bravo added 45 runs with Finch for the fifth wicket but the West Indian's vigil at the crease ended when substitute Vijay Shankar took a great running catch at deep mid-wicket as Gujarat lost half of their side with just 79 runs on the board in 14.1 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja hit a 13-ball 18 before holing out to Bhuvneshwar off Mustafizur, while Praveen Kumar remained unbeaten at 6.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 129/5 (Shikhar Dhawan 47 not out; Dwayne Bravo 2/14, Dhawal Kulkarni 2/17) beat Gujarat Lions 126/6 (Aaron Finch 51*; Mustafizur Rahman 2/17, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/28) by 5 wickets
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