Sunrisers Hyderabad
Rashid Khan – 10/10
The young Afghan leg spinner has so far been the most spectacular revelation of this year’s IPL. Once again, he bowled with amazing control to some of the best batsmen in the business, even within the powerplay overs. The only blip in his entire four over spell was the one full toss that Krunal Pandya happily deposited in the stands.
Even with that six, which can be attributed to a ball wet with dew rather than an error, he still was the most economical bowler on show. He has increasingly depended on his variations and the googly, to extremely good effect.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 9/10
Last year’s purple cap holder registered an exceedingly good performance with the ball, claiming the purple cap from Imran Tahir. Giving away only 21 runs in his four overs, Bhuvi picked up three wickets. Although the wickets came in a bunch towards the end of the innings, by when the match had completely tilted in Mumbai’s favour, his excellent economy rate ensured that he did not concede too many runs even in the powerplay.
David Warner – 8/10
The explosive Warner wasn’t as explosive today as we’ve known him to be in the past. He did play an entertaining innings at the top of the order, but couldn’t carry on to get a big score. Dhawan’s slow start also meant that the pressure was on the Australian in the powerplay overs.
He kept scoring boundaries at regular intervals and kept rotating the strike, but his dismissal and the subsequent batting collapse once again proved how heavily dependent the SRH team is on his batting exploits.
Shikhar Dhawan – 7/10
He was slow to start with but started striking the ball well later in his innings. His difficulty in getting off the blocks meant that SRH couldn’t really generate any momentum in the powerplay overs, reaching only 34 in the first six overs. Dhawan managed only 7 from 15 balls in that period.
Although he increased his scoring rate after the powerplay, his slow start meant that the visiting team was playing catch up for the rest of the innings and eventually did not manage to reach a match-winning score.
Ben Cutting – 6.5/10
The hero from last year’s IPL final couldn’t recreate the magic tonight. He chipped in with a quick cameo of 20 runs coming off just 10 balls, but it was not enough to get the visiting team to a good score.
With the ball, he bowled a good first over, giving away just 3 runs, but in his second, he lost the plot against Krunal Pandya and ended up conceding 15 runs. Warner would have expected more from the all-rounder with both bat and ball.
Ashish Nehra – 6/10
Ashish Nehra bowled better than his figures would suggest. He picked up the wicket of the dangerous Jos Buttler with a slower delivery which the batsman failed to pick. The damage to the lanky left-armer’s figures was, however, done by Parthiv Patel, who took four boundaries off his bowling within the powerplay.
The southpaw was unlucky as well, with Buttler’s inside edge missing the stumps and going to the boundary once. And then, an outside edge off Parthiv’s bat went through exactly the spot where first slip would have been standing.
Deepak Hooda – 5/10
Hooda was sent up the batting order today at number 3, perhaps to push up the scoring rate. He couldn’t accomplish much with the bat as he went for a slog sweep off Harbhajan that landed in the large hands of Pollard at long-on.
With the ball, the tall spinner is usually expected to play the support role to some of the other outstanding bowlers that SRH has in its line up. The offspinner managed to get in two overs for 18 runs but also snapped up the wicket of Parthiv Patel who was looking dangerous.
Mustafizur Rehman – 4/10
The Fizz came back into the SRH bowling line up, but it appeared that he was short on match practice as he went for an astonishing 34 runs in his 2.4 overs. Nineteen runs were plundered off his first over by Nitish Rana and Parthiv. There was to be no respite as the Bangladeshi bowler went for 11 in his second over, courtesy a Kieron Pollard sixer.
Much was expected of Mustafizur tonight, but having gone for an economy rate of over 12 and managing only three dot balls, he was a bit of a disappointment.
Naman Ojha – 4/10
Ojha is an experienced batsman at the domestic level, and much would have been expected from him towards the end of the innings. He, however, only managed 9 runs from 9 balls without even a single boundary. His wicket-keeping was much better tonight than it had been for the past two matches.
Yuvraj Singh – 2/10
Consistently one of the most expensive players in IPL, Yuvraj has struggled to live up to his price-tag with as much consistency. Coming in at a crucial juncture, the stylish left-hander managed only 5 runs from 7 balls, losing his wicket to Hardik Pandya. Even a quick little cameo from Yuvraj would have taken SRH to a winning score. However, Yuvi never looked comfortable during his stay at the crease.
Vinay Shankar – 2/10
Brought in to add some strength to the batting line-up in a bowling heavy team, Vinay Shankar managed to face only two balls. He picked one single and on the second delivery he faced, he couldn't pick Malinga’s slower delivery with the ball going off the back of the bat to Rana at point who took a simple catch. A disappointing debut for the Chennai lad.
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