Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad cruised into the Indian Premier League play-offs with an easy eight-wicket victory over Gujarat Lions on Saturday.
After pacer Mohammed Siraz and Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan played a key role in dismissing Lions for a paltry 154 in 19.2 overs, skipper David Warner (69, 52 balls) and Vijay Shankar (63, 44 balls) anchored the chase to perfection with 11 balls to spare.
Sunrisers thus finished their league campaign with 17 points from 14 games and qualified for the play-offs. Gujarat, on the other hand, will be left disappointed by how their batting capitulated in what is possibly the team’s last match-ever.
Put into bat first, Gujarat’s openers Ishan Kishan and Dwayne Smith both smashed half centuries and got the team past 100 runs in the first 10 overs. However, at 110, Rashid Khan struck, sending back Dwayne Smith on 59.
That is where Gujarat’s downfall started. Lions lost all 10 wickets for an addition 49 runs in the last 10 overs after a whopping 105 in the front 10.
Siraz (4/32) and Rashid (3/34) were brilliant in the back-10 with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/25) and Siddharth Kaul (1/30) polishing off the tail.
Kishan top-edged an ambitious pull-shot off a Siraz delivery only to be pouched by Naman Ojha.
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