Gujarat ended Hyderabad’s five-match unbeaten run in the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament on Wednesday night with a stunning 5-wicket win in the Match No 40, played at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Despite their uncapped fast bowler Umran Malik — who has taken the Indian T20 Cricket League world by storm with his searing pace and precision — taking 4-0-25-5 after his team posted 195/6 batting first, Gujarat’s lions came back roaring in the second half of the contest to record one of the best wins witnessed for any team in the tournament.
Chasing 196 ro win, Gujarat were reduced to 139/6 in the 16th over with the right-arm fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir, Umran Malik dismissing the power hitters David Miller and Abhinav Manohar in quick succession to put his team firmly in command of the contest.
Gujarat were still far away from the target and it looked like they would be succumbing to a second defeat — that too against Hyderabad this year in the league stage — but fate had other plans in store for Hardik Pandya’s team.
Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan joined forces to add 59 runs unbeaten from the next 24 balls to power Gujarat to a stunning victory by 5 wickets in a whirlwind manner, pushing them back to the top of the Indian T20 cricket League 2022 points table, becoming the first team in the competition to get to 14 points so far.
While there was nothing wrong, or for that matter, anything different that they could have done, the Kane Williamson-led Hyderabad were simply outplayed by a brilliant opponent in Gujarat, who have been notching up such thrilling, late finishes more often than not in the Indian T20 cricket League 2020.
Rahul Tewatia remained unbeaten on 40, which came from 21 balls spangled with 4 fours and 2 sixes, whereas the former Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan made up for a poor performance with the ball earlier in the evening to concede his fourth costliest spell in history of the tournament.
Rashid Khan was belligerent in the final over against South Africa fast bowler and one of their heroes in last match win over Bangalore, Marco Jansen, as the left-arm fast bowler was hammered for overall 4 sixes — 1 from Rashid Khan — in the last over to take Gujarat past the finish line.
Rashid Khan hammered 3 sixes to make 31 not out from just 11 balls to power Gujarat to their 7th win from 8 matches, which has taken them back to the top of the points table for Indian T20 cricket League 2022.
The stunning comeback via Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan came for Gujarat after their opening batsman Wriddhiman Saha waged a lone battle among the batsmen to keep them in the hunt of a big target. Wriddhiman Saha top scored from either side in the contest on Wednesday night, cracking 11 boundaries and 1 six to make 68 from just 38 balls.
Wriddhiman Saha added 26 runs for the opening wicket with Shubman Gill to set the tone in favour of his side, and even though he kept running out of partners on a regular basis, there was no stopping the diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman from scoring his pivotal half-century and also completed 200 fours in the competition history.
Earlier in the contest, a 96-run stand between half-centurions Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram powered Hyderabad to a strong total of 195/6 in their 20 overs.
Abhishek Sharma was impressive at the top once again for Hyderabad, especially when their captain Kane Williamson was dismissed for cheap. Rahul Tripathi also disappointed when he perished for a 10-ball 16 but Aiden Markram did well to hang around till late in the innings and try to keep gujarat bowlers in check.
Abhishek Sharma faced 42 balls and hit 6 boundaries and 3 sixes to score 65 whereas the right-handed South African batsman Aiden Markram made 56 from 40 balls with the help of 2 boundaries and 3 sixes.
Towards the end of the innings for Hyderabad, their uncapped Indian all-rounder Shashank Singh cracked 3 sixes and a four to make 25 from the 6 balls to take them closer to the 200 run mark.
The defeat by 5 wickets at the hands of Gujarat pushed Hyderabad to the third spot in the points table after they had risen as high as No 2. Hyderabad will be keen to bounce back in their next match on May 1 when they take on archrivals Chennai. On the other hand, Gujarat will face Bangalore on April 30.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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