SRH vs LSG | Pooran steals show at Orange Army's den to engineer blowout victory

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk,SportsCafe Editor

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Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to repeat their batting heroics from the season opener as a frequent fall of wickets restricted them to 190/9 at the Rajiv Gandhi Int'l Stadium on Thursday. In response, fifty from Mitch Marsh and an explosive 70 from Nicholas Pooran meant the chase took just 16.1 overs.

Brief score: LSG 193/5 (16.1) [Pooran 70(26), Marsh 52(31); Cummins 2/29(3)] beat SRH 190/9 (20) [Head 47(28), Reddy 36(28); Thakur 4/34(4)] by five wickets

Asked to bat first, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a rare timid start as Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan gave away just 12 runs in the first two overs. A hellraising shot from Abhishek Sharma was only inevitable thus, but this time the ball ended up straight in the hands of square leg before Shardul made it a double whammy by stifling Ishan Kishan down leg to dispatch the previous game's centurion for a golden duck. However, two wickets were never going to stop Travis Head from being his usual stormy self as he took apart Avesh for 18 runs immediately after.  To put a break to the carnage, Rishabh Pant brought on leggies Digvijay Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi and the move nearly paid dividends when the latter deceived Head twice in his first over, only for the chances to be spilled and the powerplay score to read a healthy 62/2, with Nitish Kumar Reddy playing second fiddle at the other end. Prince Yadav was the next weapon unleshed by LSG, in the eighth over, and the right-arm quick left no room for any errors by  shattering Head's stumps to claim his maiden IPL wicket. He added another to the team's tally soon after by inadvertently deflecting a powerful Reddy drive onto the non-striker's stumps to catch Henirich Klaasen off-guard, just when he had begun to get going in his 17-ball knock of 26. Nitish himself perished soon after in trying to up the tempo against Bishnoi to depart for 32 off 28, leaving the team reeling at 128/5, wherefater wickets never stopped tumbling. Eventually, it took a heroic 13-ball cameo from Aniket Verma featuring five sixes as well as a stunning four-ball 18 from Pat Cummins to take the team to a competitive 190/9.

In response, Aiden Markram's horrid run in the IPL continued as he chipped a Mohammed Shami delivery straight to Cummins and embarked on a long walk back to the dugout in the second over. Nevertheless, it was all LSG thereafter, as Nicholas Pooran and Mitch Marsh took the game by the scruff of its neck with a 116-run stand of just 43 balls. The duo did not discriminate in who to take apart, with Marsh ending on 52 off 31 while Pooran smoked 70 runs in just 26 deliveries, smashing six fours and as many maximums in the process. By the time the duo had returned to the dugout, the required equation read a paltry 73 required in 68 balls and despite a couple of consolation wickets thereafter, David Miller (13* off 7) and Abdul Samad (22* off 8) ensured there were no hiccups to take the team across the line in the 17th over. 

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