All eyes were on Umran Malik of Sunrisers Hyderabad, but all they could see was a blur. Still, Gujarat Titans had their last laugh when they took a five wicket victory in their thrilling IPL match here on Wednesday. The young speed sensation, introduced on offense only in the eighth over eighth, as Kane Williamson’s last resort, delivered what was expected of him, taking five wickets with devastatingly fast deliveries to advance through the top order of Gujarat Titans cutting and Sunrisers Hyderabad nearly to their sixth straight win in the ongoing edition of the lucrative competition.
But Rahul Tewatia (40 not out of 21 balls) and Rashid Khan (31 not out of 11) needed other ideas like GT, 56 from last 24 overs after Umran reached his quota of four overs, knocked the required runs, with the star from Afghanistan who finished the game with a six over a fine leg.
The BCCI will nevertheless have again taken serious note of the man from Jammu, who, in one of the best exhibitions of fast bowling ever, finished with unbelievable figures of 5/25, of which four were bowled.
Opener Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram struck a dazzling half-century as Sunrisers put Hyderabad 195 for six after being asked to hit first.
In pursuit of a stiff target, the Titans headed for a flyer with Wriddhiman Saha (68) blasting his way to a flurry of boundaries as he made 69 runs for the first wicket with an understated Shubman Gill (22), who the second played the violin.
After the others tried and failed, Umran managed to get the first break when he disrupted Gill’s off-stump in the eighth inning and his first over.
After he had two fours, GT skipper Hardik Pandya was pushed in by Umran’s jump as he slid one to the third man.
Meanwhile, playing one of his amazing IPL pats, Saha raced to his fifty in 28 balls with a single too long-on.
Luck was on Saha’s side too, as Washington Sundar couldn’t hold onto what would have been an incredible catch halfway through, only for the ball to race to the border.
The show was then on for Umran before the duo of Tewatia and Rashid swung the game in GT’s favor with their astonishing at bat.
Earlier, Abhishek shot away to 65 from 42 deliveries, while Markram made a 40-ball 56 on a 96-run third wicket score.
Then Shashank Singh (25 from 6 balls) crushed Lockie Ferguson (0/52 in 4 overs) for three consecutive sixes to score 25 runs in the last over of the innings.
To start, SRH was aided by Mohammed Shami’s (3/39 in 4 overs) 11-run opening over in which a beauty of the first pitch was followed by five leg-side walks, not once but twice.
Yash Dayal also gave up 11 runs, thanks to two limits from Abhishek Sharma on the outside, while SRH raced to 22 without losing in two overs.
Kane Williamson snapped Shami over the square leg for his first border, but that’s all the SRH skipper could do with the bat, as three balls later, the seasoned Indian pacer went through the gate with a nice seam delivery to sack the Kiwi and his team’s match the first breakthrough.
Rahul Tripathi had had a life on point even before he could open his account, Rahul Tripathi hit Shami for 6, 4, 4 before a review found the batter stuck for the wicket in an eventful fifth over, which was good for 14 run.
Abhishek, unperturbed by the fall of two wickets, collected two straight fours off Alzarri Joseph – first he gloated over the infield, then found the gap via a packed offside – to help SRH score 53 runs in the six power playovers on the Wankhede stadium.
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SRH needed a partnership at the time and the duo of Abhishek and Markram not only ensured that but also kept the scoreboard moving at a very good pace by regularly pushing the boundaries.
While Markram was dealing with pacemakers like Alzarri, Abhishek went after Rashid Khan and hit the Afghan spin ace for his third six to reach his half-century in style.
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