Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad is a franchise cricket team that plays in the Indian Premier League. Currently coached by Tom Moody, the team boasts of world class players including Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson under the mentorship of legends like VVS Laxman.

Led by David Warner for the past three years, the franchise has retained their captain for 2018 season along with Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium is their home ground, which was thronged by fans in sheer numbers when the team lifted the cup in 2016.

Background

When Deccan Chargers was put up for sale by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd due to financial problems in 2012, Sunrisers Hyderabad was born out of the ashes. The franchise was bought for a five-year deal by Sun TV Network Limited, one of India’s biggest television networks with over 32 TV channels along with 45 FM stations.

Deccan Chargers had won the league once in 2009, and was one of the eight founding members of the league. Consequently, Sunrisers Hyderabad had tones of hopes riding on its shoulders when the team played its first IPL in 2013. They played their first match against Pune Warriors and defeated them by 22 runs.

Prominent Achievements

Sunrisers had to wait three years to be the crowned champions in 2016. The had stood at a confident third position in the points table before eliminator match against Kolkata Knight Riders in the playoffs. They easily cruised over the Kolkata team, defeating them by 22 runs with Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalping 3 wickets.

Sunrisers’ captain David Warner led from the front in the qualifier match against Gujrat Lions, where he scored an unbeaten 93, carrying his team to a 4-wicket victory.

They faced Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final in a high scoring match with both teams reaching 200. Batting first, Sunrisers put up a mammoth 208 on the board by the help of Ben Cutting, who smashed a quick-fire 39 off 15 balls. He went on to take two wickets to restrict RCB to 200 and was awarded Man of the match.

Shikhar Dhawan has played 75 matches for Sunrisers, the highest by any player for the team. He is followed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Warner with 59 matches each.

Career trajectory

Their Predecessors, Deccan Chargers had finished eight in the 2012 season and Sunrisers Hyderabad was under a lot pressure to perform in their inaugural season. They reached the playoffs under the captaincy of Kumar Sangakkara and Cameron White but were eliminated after losing to Rajasthan.

In their second outing in IPL, the team disappointed fans as it could not even reach the playoffs, finishing sixth on the points table. Led by Shikhar Dhawan for the first 10 matches, and by Darren Sammy for the last 4, Sunrisers won only 6 matches.

Hoping to rise to the occasion in their third season, Sunrisers failed in the 2015 edition as well. The onus of captaincy was handed out to the team’s star batsman, David Warner. Although he won the orange cap by being the top scorer in the tournament, he failed to deliver as a captain and Sunrisers finished at a miserable sixth position again.

When they started their campaign in the 2016 edition on a losing note, hopes were not high from the team that finished 6^th in the last two seasons. However, the team took everyone by surprise by becoming the first and only team to win both Qualifiers before winning the final.

Along with the championship trophy, the team was awarded with the Fair Play Award. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the star for his team and won the Purple cap as well. The Bangladeshi prodigy, Mustafizur Rahman won the Emerging player award.

Fans information

The ‘Orange Army’ has a huge fan following even though it is a relatively new team and does not boast of too many star cricketers. This is because the team breaks the monotony of big hitting in IPL as bowlers win matches as often as batsmen for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s huge fan base is reflected on social media platforms. With over 2 million likes on Facebook and 260K followers on Twitter, the team is always creating buzz on the social media.

The term ‘Orange Army’ was coined before the 2017 season to engage fans and was promoted across all social media platforms. The promotion was widely popular and fans thronged the Sunrisers events and campaigns.