Shardul, Pooran shine in LSG's five-wicket win over SRH
Hyderabad, Mar 27 (PTI): Shardul Thakur's four-wicket haul and a sensational display of power-hitting from Nicholas Pooran set up a five-wicket win for Lucknow Super Giants over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL match here on Thursday.
Shardul continued his dream comeback returning with figures of 4/34 to help LSG restrict a power-packed SRH to 190 for nine before Pooran (70 off 26; 6x4s, 6x6s) displayed his 360 degree hitting skills.
Pooran shared quick-fire match-winning 116 runs for the second wicket with Marsh (52 off 31) to help LSG chase down the target in 16.1 overs.
LSG didn't have the best start to their chase as they lost Aiden Markram early. But thereafter, it was the effortless hitting from Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran that helped LSG surge ahead.
Pooran in particular was at his attacking best as he mostly dealt in sixes, clobbering Simarjeet and Abhishek Sharma for huge sixes during his knock, mostly towards the square boundary.
SRH just found it difficult to stop Pooran as he didn't even spare Cummins, hitting him for two fours in his first over to reach 77 for 1 in the powerplay.
Pooran brought up the fastest fifty of this season in just 18 balls with another huge six over square leg of Adam Zampa.
Pooran's magnificent knock was cut short by Cummins, trapped in front of the wickets in the ninth over.
After Pooran's dismissal, Marsh took the onus on him and brought up his half-century of just 29 balls.
LSG skipper Rishabh Pant (15 off 15) could not do much but Abdul Samad played a entertaining cameo to get his side home.
Earlier opting bowl, Shardul (4/34) gave LSG a fiery start, removing Abishek Sharma and last match centurion Ishan Kishan in consecutive balls in the third over.
Shardul sent packing Sharma with a short delivery before getting Ishan Kishan caught behind off an innocuous delivery down the leg side.
Travis Head (47 off 28), however, looked in ominous form as he took the attack to the opposition and used his brute power to deal in boundaries and sixes.
Head was particularly brutal against Avesh Khan, who sprayed the ball on both sides, with the Australian hitting him for two sixes and one four to pick up 18 runs in the fourth over.
Head, however, was lucky as he got two reprieves.
Head skied Ravi Bishnoi's first ball down the ground, and Pooran stationed at long-on had all the time in the world to get under the ball and take a simple catch but the West Indian put it down.
The missed chance proved costly as Head slammed Bishnoi over covers for a maximum.
Bishnoi had another chance to claim the wicket of Head in the fifth ball of the sixth over but he failed to latch on to a difficult return catch.
But Head's luck finally ran out when fast bowler Prince Yadav disturbed his timbers to pick up his first IPL wicket.
Henrich Klaasen (26 off 17) was looking dangerous but got out in a bizarre fashion, run out by Yadav off his own bowling as a straight drive from Nitish Reddy ricocheted on to the sumps from the bowlers follow through.
Young Aniket Verma played a 13-ball 36-run cameo that included five sixes but fell to leg-spinner Disvesh Rathi, caught by David Miller.
SRH skipper Pat Cummins (18 off 4) hit three sixes of his first three balls before departing.
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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi''s third-fastest IPL ton propels RR to 228/6 against SRH
Jaipur (PTI): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (103) went hammer and tongs for the third fastest hundred in IPL history off 36 balls, powering Rajasthan Royals to a huge 228 for six against Sunrisers Hyderabad, in an IPL match here on Saturday.
Sooryavanshi made SRH pay a heavy price for an early reprieve when he was on 32 to notch up his second hundred in the league and first of the season, which followed three whirlwind fifties earlier.
The 15-year-old once again displayed his rich repertoire of strokes executed with brute force and timing, as Rajasthan played their first match of the season here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. He used the long handle to maximum effect to clobber 12 sixes as against five fours in his 37-ball 103.
He brought up his ton with a six off Sakib Hussain (1/62) on his 36th delivery, recording the third fastest century in the IPL after his own 35-ball hundred last year and Chris Gayle’s 30-ball ton for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in April 2013.
Sooryavanshi was off the blocks quickly when he smacked Praful Hinge (1/49) for two sixes on the on side and two down the wicket on the final four balls of the opening over, making a rapid start and didn’t look back.
An on-song Sooryavanshi rarely missed a freebie to punish as he garnered runs on both the sides of the wicket while putting on two robust stands at the top to continue RR’s charge.
His rapid start helped in adding 40 runs off only 14 balls for the opening wicket while he consolidated for RR with a 112-run stand for the second wicket with Dhruv Jurel, who chipped in with a 35-ball 51 with eight fours and two sixes.
Sooryavanshi's charge ended immediately after completing his ton when he missed a scoop off Hussain and was pinned in front of the stumps for a leg-before.
Meanwhile, Jurel was also lucky twice as Hussain could not hold on to two tough return chances in his follow-through.
Even as SRH managed to get the rid of the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) early, they erred when the opportunity was created by Eshan Malinga (2/38) in the fifth over to remove Sooryavanshi.
On a length ball, Sooryavanshi looked to heave it to the on-side but mistimed it. Aniket Reddy covered some distance at deep midwicket on his right but the ball popped out of his hands for a costly drop.
Sooryavanshi went on to complete his fifty off 15 balls with a six in the sixth over from Hussain.
RR's innings was also spruced up by Donovan Ferreira's late 16-ball 33, studded with three sixes and as many fours.
Amid the charge from RR batters, SRH had their regular skipper Pat Cummins returning with impressive numbers of 4-0-27-1 with his solitary wicket being that of his counterpart Riyan Parag (7).
