Piping hot Hyderabad cook Lucknow in biryani contest
SRH openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma (Photo: X)
Hyderabad: Who’s got the best biryani, Hyderabad or Lucknow? Sunrisers settled that debate on Wednesday night by serving it piping hot to the visitors as they had them for dinner at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
They made a mockery of LSG’s modest total of 165 by smashing it down inside 10 overs with all 10 wickets in hand. Opener Abhishek Sharma bludgeoned 75 in 28 balls, eight of which crashed against the boundary and six soared over it. His partner Travis Head bulldozed his way to an energetic 89 in 30 balls with eight fours and an equal number of sixes.
When Sun came out to bat, it rained boundaries, from the blazing blades of Abhishek and Head, who are the flavour of the season. K. Gowtham, Yash Thakur and Ravi Bishnoi bore the brunt as the hosts brought up the team 50 in the fourth over and then wrapped up the match much before the half-way stage.
It was the biggest win for the Sunrisers in terms of the total chased down with all wickets intact. The victory also took them to third on the points table and also boosted the net run-rate.
Earlier, a fighting near-century stand for the unbroken fifth wicket between Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni lifted LSG from a shaky 66 for 4 to a decent 165. Both put their heads down and got into damage control. Pooran packed in six boundaries and a six in his 26-ball 48 while Badoni batted diligently to make 55 in 30 balls.
The visitors were slow off the blocks. As Sun skipper Pat Cummins came in to bowl the second over, the screen at the stadium flashed “Happy Birthday Captain Cummins.”
His opposite number Rahul played two dot balls and smashed the third into the stands.
Two brilliant catches, by Nitish Reddy on the boundary and Sanvir Singh on the edge of the inner circle, saw LSG lose big guns Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis inside the Powerplay period, at the end of which the score read a terrible 27 for 2.
Cummins finally got his man, courtesy a fine catch on the fine leg fence by T. Natarajan that ended Rahul’s 33-ball 29 right at half-way stage.
Lucknow 57 for 3 after 10 overs, during which the ball had crossed the boundary just four times. Sun sent it 30 times (16 fours and 14 sixes) in the same period to make it a no-contest.
Scoreboard
Lucknow Super Giants: K. L. Rahul c Natarajan b Cummins 29, Quinton de Kock c Reddy b Bhuvneshwar 2, Marcus Stoinis c Sanvir b Bhuvneshwar 3, Krunal Pandya run out 24, Nicholas Pooran not out 48, Ayush Badoni not out 55. Extras (lb-1, w-3) 4. Total (for 4 wickets in 20 overs) 165.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-21, 3-57, 4-66.
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-12-2, Pat Cummins 4-0-47- 1, Shahbaz Ahmed 2-0-9-0, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 4-0-27-0, Jaydev Unadkat 2-0-19-0, T. Natarajan 4-0-50-0.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma not out 75, Travis Head not out 89. Extras (lb-1, w-2) 3. Total (for no loss in 9.4 overs) 167.
Bowling: Krishnappa Gowtham 2-0-29-0, Yash Thakur 2.4-0-47-0, Ravi Bishnoi 2-0-34-0, Naveen-ul-Haq 2-0-37-0, Ayush Badoni 1-0-19-0.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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