All eyes were on Umran Malik as he ran through the Gujarat Titans top order with his reckless speed. However, Hardik Pandya’s team had the last laugh as they prized out a five-wicket win in their thrilling IPL encounter on Wednesday.
Umran grabbed five wickets with devastatingly quick deliveries to scythe through the GT batting lime-up but Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan had other plans. With 22 runs required in the last over of the innings bowled by Marco Jansen and Tewatia hit one six while Rashid smashed three sixes to take their team over the victory line.
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Let’s have a look at the talking points of the GT vs SRH encounter:
Abhishek Sharma: The young batter from Punjab has certainly evolved as one of the trustworthy batters in IPL 2022. The biggest example of him turning mature was his impressive innings against the Gujarat Titans. After the early dismissals of Kane Williamson and Rahul Tripathi, Sharma took charge and repaired the damage with a blistering half-century. He top-scored with a 42-ball 65, including 3 sixes and a boundary. While Markram dealt with the likes of pacers such as Alzarri, Abhishek went after Rashid Khan, hitting the Afghanistan spin ace for his third six to reach his half-century in style.
Aiden Markram: The South African batter has been in a great nick ever since he has been representing the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Markram enjoyed his time with Abhishek Sharma and scored 56 off 40 deliveries with the help of 3 sixes and 2 boundaries. It was his second half-century this season that came right on time. He formed a strong 96-run partnership with Sharma for the third wicket before falling prey to Yash Dayal in the 18th over.
Shashank Singh’s fiery cameo: Hardly the fans knew about the batter who represents Chhattisgarh in domestic cricket. But after his 6-ball 25 against GT on Wednesday, he has certainly become a sensation. Shashank walked out to bat when the SRH were reduced to 162 for 6. He faced just six balls but made the most of it by smashing three sixes and a boundary. He stole the show with a hat-trick of maximums in the final over bowled by Lockie Ferguson, helping the team stack 195 runs in 20 overs.
Wridhhiman Saha’s first Fifty this season: After a series of poor performances, Wriddhiman returned with a promising half-century against his previous franchise and laid the foundation of his team’s stunning victory. Luck too was on Saha’s side as Washington Sundar could not hold on to what would have been an unbelievable catch at mid-on, only for the ball to race to the boundary. The 37-year-old ended up smashing a 38-ball 68 with the help of 11 boundaries and a six.
Umran Breathing fire: GT lost five wickets during the chase of 196 and all of them were picked by Umran. Out of the five dismissals, four of the batters were clean bowled while one man – Hardik Pandya – was caught out. The right-arm quick registered his maiden five-for which was also his best bowling stats – 5 for 25 – for SRH in the IPL. He now has the 2nd best bowling stats by an uncapped player in the league after Ankit Rajpoot’s 5/14 against the same opponent in 2018.
Finishing touch by Rashid and Tewatia: After Umran’s juggernaut, it seemed like the end of the road for Gujarat but Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan teamed up and finished the chase in style. Gujarat needed 22 runs in the last over of the innings bowled by Marco Jansen and Tewatia hit one six while Rashid smashed three sixes to take their team over the victory line. Tewatia scored an unbeaten 40 off 21 balls while Rashid was not out for 31 from 11 deliveries.
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