IPL 2016: SRH tame the Lions in their den

Barinder Sran presented the Gujarat captain with a ‘hit me’ ball. Raina gleefully flicked it over the short fine leg. Two more boundaries in Kumar’s next over indicated to Raina’s growing confidence.

The run-rate climbed to over eight runs per over and the visitors looked to be in the ascendency. They fizzled thereafter, but we would come to that later. Raina’s lone-ranger was good enough to claim the priority.

It was his first T20 fifty after 30 innings. He completed his 6,000 T20 runs during the course of his excellent 51-ball 75. All his fours —nine of them — had been sweetly timed and excellently placed. Raina got out in the final over, trying to slog a Kumar off-cutter over long-on and mis-hitting it to Moises Henriques. He played a lone hand.

SRH put brakes on
The process started in the eighth over with Bipul Sharma dismissing Brendon McCullum. Deepak Hooda then removed Dinesh Karthik with a full-toss with the batsman hitting it straight down to deep square-leg’s throat. Between over No. 6 and 10, Gujarat scored 24 runs and lost two wickets. Once in control, Hyderabad took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Cruise mode
David Warner shielded his partner Shikhar Dhawan and allowed him to grow in confidence. The latter came into this game with an aggregate of 59 runs in his last seven T20 outings. Today, he scored 53 not out off 41 balls in an unbroken 137-run opening stand that secured a 10-wicket cruise — their first in T20s — with 31 balls remaining. His captain remained unbeaten on 74 off 48 balls to take the Orange Cap.