IPL 6: Sunrisers eclipse Warriors to usher a new dawn

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler Dale Steyn celebrates after fall of wicket during the match with Pune Warriors at Hyderabad on April 5, 2013.

The Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad was sparsely occupied. But the few that turned up were treated to an unexpectedly competitive contest between two fumbling franchises. Despite some insipid batting from both sides, the match came alive midway through the second innings by virtue of Sangakkara’a shrewd captaincy. The Lankan marshalled his limited resources wisely to shackle the Pune Warriors and pour life into an almost dead match. Defending a meagre 126-6, the Sunrisers Hyderabad did a tremendous job of restricting the Warriors before eventually strangling them to clinch an unlikely 22 run win in the first match for the reinvented franchise.

The hosts, batting first after losing the toss, surrendered wickets at regular intervals even as they struggled to what seemed a decidedly insufficient score. But Sunrisers did much better with the ball in their hands to take control of the match by taking 4 wickets – including the dangerous Robin Uthappa, Marlon Samuels and Yuvraj Singh – while conceding just 15 runs between the 7th and 12th overs of the second innings. The strangled Warriors attempted in vain to break free from the self-imposed shackles, but accurate bowling from Amit Mishra and Dale Steyn ensured that Hyderabadi team won their debut match by 22 runs.

Parthiv Patel (19, 18b, 3×4) got the Sunrisers off to a steady start, but fell victim to his own avarice in the sixth over. Patel went after a swinging Dinda delivery without moving his feet only to see his off stump uprooted. Sangakkara wasted no time to cream a couple of boundaries soon as he made his way to the crease and kept the game flowing. At 58-1 by the ninth over, the Sunrisers looked poised to post a challenging total considering that they had almost all their wickets intact.

Sangakkara decided to go after the lanky leg spinner Rahul Sharma, who came in to bowl his first over. But the wily Sharma picked up the prize scalp turning one straight through a charging Sangakkara to rattle the Lankan’s furniture. With Sharma locking down an end, Akshath Reddy gave the charge to Yuvraj Singh only to be bowled by a quicker delivery at the end of the 13th over. Thisara Perera struck through the line to help his team past the 100 mark, even as he stood witness to the departure of Cameron White.

The southpaw struck three boundaries and a six to give Sunrisers a much-needed move on, but his promise perished in the 18th over. Perera failed to get under a dipping full toss and the ball flew high off the bottom of the bat before settling into the hands of Manish Pandey at long-on. Only 13 runs came off the final two overs as Pune went into the dinner break as the team with the better appetite.

Bowling with purpose, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn did a fantastic job conceding just 13 of the first four overs to give their skipper the ammunition and courage to attack the Warriors. Uthappa cut loose with a six and two boundaries but his aggression was snuffed out when Perera induced an edge in the seventh over for Patel to snap up a good catch behind the stumps.

An emboldened Sangakkara invited White to man the slips and the move paid immediate dividends. Marlon Samuels swung at a Perera delivery only to edge it into the hands of the Australian. By the end of the tenth over, Hyderabad had succeeded in restraining the visitors to just 48-3. But the target was not too tall, leaving the smart money riding on Pune at the midway stage of the chase.

Bowling with miserly guile, Amit Mishra tightened the noose when he found the thick outside edge of Pandey’s bat with White taking the catch at slip. 44 were needed from 25 when Nayar miscued a lofted drive straight into the safe hands of Ishant Sharma to reduce the Warriors to 83-5 in the 16th over. Ashish Reddy dealt a severe blow when he knocked the dangerous Ross Taylor down with a clever slower delivery. The New Zealander player all over the delivery only to have his furniture rearranged.

Ross Taylor of Pune Warriors walks out after getting out against Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL match at Hyderabad on April 5, 2013.

An unperturbed Mitchell Marsh threatened to decimate the bowling with a thundering six straight down the ground. But Angelo Mathews scored a self goal, when his thumping straight drive off Perera in the next over was intercepted by the bowler before clattering into the stumps to leave Marsh stranded outside the non-striker’s crease. The Warriors needed 23 runs off the final two overs, when Sangakkara handed the ball to Steyn.

Pune skipper Angelo Mathews took a single off the first ball in the 19th over before Steyn took centre stage. The South African uprooted the leg stump twice in two balls to eliminate Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Rahul Sharma to take the hosts to the verge of victory. Steyn failed to complete his hat-trick but succeeded in getting Ashok Dinda to edge one to White for a third wicket in four balls to help the erstwhile Deccan Chargers team to an unlikely victory at the beginning of an exciting new innings in their freshly minted avatar.