Branded as one of the weakest attacks in this season’s Indian Premier League, SunRisers Hyderabad’s bowlers banded together and fought hard to eke out a terrific victory at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday, April 18.
Led by Nitish Reddy, SRH hit back strongly against the Chennai Super Kings batting unit, restricting the visiting side to 184/8 while defending 195 runs at home, in a game where nearly 80 per cent of the crowd supported the away side. CSK supporters turned Uppal yellow and made it a hostile atmosphere for the home side, which was put under pressure throughout the game with reverberating ‘CSK, CSK’ chants.
Chasing 195, CSK started brightly and raced to 76 runs in the first six overs, threatening to take the game away early. However, the visitors lost steam after the powerplay as SRH’s bowlers produced a terrific collective effort, executing their plans to perfection against the likes of Matt Short, Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dube, and steadily dragging the game deeper.
Defending 18 runs off the final six balls, uncapped pacer Praful Hinge, who had already conceded 54 runs in his first three overs, nearly lost his nerve after bowling a waist-high no-ball on the third delivery of the over. With the pressure mounting and the crowd roaring behind CSK, Hinge came clutch, holding his nerve to deliver three excellent balls and restrict the opposition to 184/8 at the end of the 20th over.
It is not an understatement to say that CSK were running away with the game early on. Young Ayush Mhatre had given them a bright start, smashing 30 off just 13 balls and putting SRH immediately on the back foot. A hamstring injury in the fifth over, however, brought his momentum to a halt, and Mhatre ended up getting dismissed on the very next ball.
Mhatre’s wicket in the fifth over, followed by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s dismissal in the sixth, gave SRH the perfect opening to hit back, and hit back they did, choking the life out of the CSK innings.
Nitish Reddy deserves immense credit here for bowling his heart out against CSK. He bowled full and quick, mixing it up with the occasional sharp bouncer to keep the batters uncomfortable. Nitish’s intensity caught CSK by surprise, and the side ended up surrendering the key wickets of Sanju Samson and Ayush Mhatre to him.
Once the floodgates opened, SRH brought in pacers Sakib Hussain and Ehsan Malinga to tighten the grip through the middle overs. The duo bowled full and fast, consistently getting underneath the batswing of the CSK batters and making life increasingly difficult for the opposition. Once the ball started reversing after the 15th over, it became almost impossible for the CSK batters to score, as they were not able to deal with the sideways movement of the ball. Worse, they did not really pick up the slower balls as well, which were bowled into the pitch, denying any pace to the batters in the death overs.
Alongside the pacers came Shivang Kumar, the left-arm wrist-spinner from Madhya Pradesh, also known as India’s Noor Ahmad. Shivang’s constant googlies, drifting away from the right-hander’s bat, put a real brake on CSK’s scoring rate and forced them into errors.
Malinga finished with figures of 4-0-19-3, Sakib returned 4-0-32-1, while Shivang registered figures of 3-0-18-1, including the key wicket of Dewald Brevis, who was dismissed for 0 off 4 balls.
CSK never really recovered from that collapse and eventually stuttered to 184/8 in their 20 overs.
At this time, it probably needs to be highlighted again that SRH were called one of the thinnest bowling attacks at the start of the season. And they probably are. Just that it once again was proven that even on a non-competitive deck, Indian uncapped bowlers are good enough to trouble world class hitters if they are given a solid plan.
On Saturday, the plan was simple. Bowled with good zip and try to hit the top of off stump. Show good intent. And when the time came, execute your yorkers. And that’s all it took to down CSK today. Credit must be given to the SRH management – especially Varun Aaron who was constantly in the ears of the bowlers, guiding them from the sidelines.
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