Sunrisers Hyderabad spin duo, who had been underestimated by the young and promising squad of Rajasthan Royals, made sure that a 36-run win in Qualifier 2 came their way.
This victory means that SRH has won a place in the IPL final where they will face off Kolkata Knight Riders this Sunday.
However, The Royals could only manage 139 for 7 after chasing a target of 176 which means that Sunrisers Hyderabad will be making their third appearance in an IPL final after 2016 and 2018.
Meanwhile, on a slow pitch where there were significant turn and grip as the evening progressed along with no dew to assist batters, Abhishek (2/24 in 4 overs) and Shahbaz (3/23 in 4 overs) forced the Yashasvi Jaiswals, Sanju Samsons and Riyan Parags to press the unwanted ‘Harakiri button’ in just fifteen minutes of pure brain fade that ended their hopes of reaching another final.
They have however been completely overshadowed by Ravichandran Ashwin (0/43 in 4 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (0/34 in 4 overs) who give away runs from their quota at over rates while together they accounted for over half of the total scored against them by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
That was also eventually what made all difference between two sides.
From being comfortable at the score-board with figures reading “65/1” it suddenly became “79/5” at the end of over number twelve.
He bowled three overs prior to this night’s game yet Abhishek suddenly got the ball to dip as well as turn; on his part Shahbaz had one such delivery gamble while it gripped perfectly leading to Samson being dismissed. In that case neither Jaiswal nor even Parag could just get the distance as the ball stopped on them.
It would have been better had there been dew since the humidity at around 80 percent was quite high.
Abhishek (12) at the start became indiscreet when he played one shot too many off Boult and was holed out.
It didn’t work, however, to have Ashwin (0/43 in 4 overs) bowl with a new ball in hopes that it would bring about his familiarity with Chepauk since Rahul Tripathi (37 off 15 balls) struck the senior off-spinner out of the attack.
His poor shot selection while trying to hit Boult over short third become his undoing just when it seemed that he was taking control on a day when Head wasn’t getting his timing right.
This time Aiden Markram’s re-entry into playing XI proved fruitless as he had a go at slashing at short third man. Nonetheless Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to recover some ground through Klaasen as they were now 99 for three by which point Head had been caught by Sandeep rolling fingers over.
Klaasen understood that the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat and only went for the jugular to the deliveries that were in his arc as he got one of his better half-centuries in difficult conditions before a slower delivery on the blockhole rattled the furniture
When Klaasen went, going past 200 also vanished instantly
