Sunrisers Hyderabad, known for their prolific run-scoring throughout the season, couldn’t produce a big score this time. Despite that, Pat Cummins’ team broke Rajasthan Royals’ hearts to secure a spot in the IPL final.
In the second qualifier of the tournament on Friday (May 24) in Chennai, Hyderabad won by 36 runs. Losing the toss and batting first, they posted a total of 175 runs, later restricting Rajasthan to 139 runs.
Hyderabad will face Kolkata Knight Riders in the title-deciding match. In the first qualifier, Hyderabad lost to Kolkata by 8 wickets. The final showdown will be on Sunday (May 26) in Chennai. This marks Hyderabad’s third appearance in the final of India’s franchise league. They won the title in their first final appearance in 2016 by defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore but lost to Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets in the 2018 final.
Shahbaz Ahmed, who made the biggest contribution to Hyderabad’s victory, won the Man of the Match award. Along with scoring 18 runs, he took 3 wickets for just 23 runs with his left-arm spin. Abhishek, who took 2 wickets for 24 runs with his left-arm spin, also made a significant contribution.
However, Abhishek didn’t contribute much with the bat, as Hyderabad opener was dismissed in the first over by Trent Boult. Rahul Tripathi then played an aggressive innings, hitting 2 sixes and 5 fours to score 37 runs off 15 balls. Boult returned to dismiss both Tripathi and Aiden Markram within four balls.
Sandeep Sharma sent back Travis Head, who stayed at the crease for a while but couldn’t accelerate. The explosive opener, who got a golden duck in the previous match, scored 34 runs off 28 balls with 1 six and 3 fours. At the end of 10 overs, Hyderabad’s score was decent at 99 for 4.
However, they started losing wickets at regular intervals. Despite this, Klaasen gifted a brilliant fifty, scoring exactly 50 runs off 34 balls with 4 sixes, helping Hyderabad surpass the 170 mark.
In the chase, Pat Cummins halted Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s struggle, while Yashasvi Jaiswal aggressively increased the team’s score. Jaiswal, who scored 42 runs off 21 balls with 3 sixes and 4 fours, was caught at the boundary off Shahbaz’s delivery. In the next over, Abhishek sent back Sanju Samson.
These two spinners didn’t allow Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Shimron Hetmyer to settle. Dhruv Jurel, who scored 56 runs off 35 balls with 2 sixes and 7 fours, tried to rescue the team, but his efforts only reduced the margin of defeat.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
175/9 in 20 overs (Head 34, Abhishek 12, Rahul Tripathi 37, Markram 1, Klaasen 50, Nitish 5, Samad 0, Shahbaz 18, Cummins 5*, Unadkat 5; Boult 4-0-45-3, Ashwin 4-0-43-0, Sandeep 4-0-25-2, Avesh 4-0-27-3, Chahal 4-0-34-0)
Rajasthan Royals:
139/7 in 20 overs (Jaiswal 42, Kohler-Cadmore 10, Samson 10, Parag 6, Jurel 56*, Ashwin 0, Hetmyer 4, Powell 6, Boult 0*; Bhuvneshwar 3-0-33-0, Cummins 4-0-30-1, Natarajan 3-0-11-1, Unadkat 1-0-5-0, Shahbaz 4-0-23-3, Abhishek 4-0-24-2, Markram 1-0-10-0)
Result: Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 36 runs
Man of the Match: Shahbaz Ahmed
