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Sun rises in Hyderabad

Hyderabad - Sunrisers notch their fifth victory in eight games by beating Lions

S
unrisers Hyderabad notched their fifth win in eight games by defeating Gujarat Lions by 5 wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad on Friday night.
After their bowling attack, especially pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the impressive Mustafizur Rahman had done the spadework to restrict the Gujarat Lions to a meager 126 for the loss of six wickets in their dig, the Sunrisers Hyderabad got home with an over to spare.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan smacked two consecutive boundaries off Praveen Kumar to seal the win. Dhawan remained unbeaten on 47 from 40 balls with six boundaries. Yuvraj Singh's first game of the season after his recovery from an ankle injury, didn't go well with the stylish southpaw making five from 14 balls. He had replaced Ashish Reddy in the side.
Earlier, Sunrisers produced a clinical bowling show as they restricted Gujarat Lions to a meagre 126 for 6. Put into bat, all the Lions batsmen, except for Aaron Finch (51 not out) struggled as the visitors posted a small total.
Finch was the only Lions batsman who gave a fight against a disciplined Gujarat bowlers and the Australian, who was dropped on 30 by home side captain David Warner, remained not out on 51 off 42 balls with the help of three fours and a six.
Captain Suresh Raina contributed 20 off 10 balls while Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra scored 18 each. For Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman grabbed two wickets apiece while Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques took a wicket each.
The Lions began with one of the slowest starts ever in the IPL and then slumped to 25 for 3 inside powerplay overs.
Openers Dwayne Smith (1) and Brendon McCullum (7) struggled to get off the blocks as the first Lions' run came after 13 dot balls with Bhuvneshwar and Nehra bowling a maiden over each.
Dwayne Smith's miserable nine-ball innings ended in the third over with Bhuvneshwar inducing an outside edge to short third man Mustafiz who took a chest-high catch. Raina came out and in complete contrast to his openers, hit a quickfire 20 off just 10 balls before perishing in the fifth over. He struck two exquisite sixes, one each off Nehra and Bhuvneshwar and it briefly looked like the Lions would recover from early jolt and slow scoring rate.
After hitting a six and a four off Bhuvneshwar, the Lions captain fell to a return catch to the same bowler, leaving his side at 24 for 2 in five overs.
Mustafizur was introduced in the sixth over and he could have got a wicket in his first ball but Shikhar Dhawan dropped McCullum who was on three then. The Bangladeshi pacer got his man in the same over in the form of Dinesh Karthik (0) with Kane Williamson taking a brilliant catch at backward point. The fielder was, however, not sure whether he took it cleanly or not. But, the TV Umpire ruled it was a catch. McCullum fell in the eighth over off Henriques to add misery to the Lions innings. Warner took the catch at long-off as the New Zealander played a lofted shot and was out after playing an uncharacteristically slow 19-ball innings.