SYNOPSIS: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s attack steps up to eliminate Rajasthan Royals and book a final date with Kolkata Knight Riders.
On a humid day, expecting the dew to play a big role in the second half of the match, Rajasthan Royals chose to bowl after winning the toss. With a series of slow bouncers and cutters, RR kept the big-hitting Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen in check.
But the dew stayed away and SRH bowlers choked the run flow and went one up to win by 36 runs and book a place in the final.
In the IPL league stage, spinners had taken just five wickets at Chepauk. Once a venue with slow wickets that aided spinners, the current strips have no traces of the past. After having restricted Hyderabad to 175/9, it appeared to be RR’s game to lose. Hyderabad were yet to defend a total less than 180 this IPL and at Chennai, they have had just one win in 10 matches.
But the stats didn’t matter on the big night.
The Hyderabad attack showed the right sort of discipline that was needed, the pitch played its part too. The degree of turn on offer in the first innings when Rajasthan bowled was 1.8. But when Hyderabad’s spinners ran through the Rajasthan’s line-up, they found 3.3 degrees of turn. In a season where matches involving Hyderabad have turned into six-hitting contests, on Friday it were the dot balls that swung the result their way.
Having consumed 41 dot balls when they batted, Hyderabad’s bowlers bowled 55 dots
For Rajasthan to sneak ahead, they needed a good powerplay. Since May, their form has been on a downward spiral. After arresting it in the Eliminator, they weren’t at their best in Qualifier II. After making
only 24 runs off the first four overs, they did well to make 51 in the powerplay, losing only Tom Kohler-Cadmore.
But thereafter, spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma would take full control of the proceedings, picking up five wickets between them as Rajasthan’s batting combusted under pressure.
With the pitch offering enough assistance, the two spinners didn’t do anything extraordinary but stuck to the basics and combined to bowl 8 overs and concede just 47 runs. It was an outstandings performance on a night where Rajasthan’s experienced spinners R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal went wicketless — going for 77 runs in their eight overs.
Hyderabad’s Plan B
Despite all the high scores that MA Chidambaram Stadium has seen this season, it still remains a venue where batting units have to shift gears at different points. For Hyderabad, who have played only in top gear during most of the season, this was a test of character.
With the Qualifier II being played on a new strip (pitch No.7), they had short dimensions on one side (61 metres) to make full use of. But for that to work, they needed one of their two openers — who happened to be the only left-handers in the top-6 – to play an outstandings innings. With just five bowling options, using R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, with short boundaries on one side, was a big risk.
Rajasthan were tactically good with the ball though. Fast bowler Trent Boult began the night by removing Abhishek Sharma in the first over. Rahul Tripathi, then walked in, and quickly transferred all the pressure back on Rajasthan, by striking it at 246.66. Making good use of the short boundaries, two sixes and a boundary for Tripathi came on the leg side behind square.
The powerplay was going the way Hyderabad intended before Boult brought out the first of many slow bouncers that Rajasthan would rely on. Tripathi, like Travis Head did later on, had lined up to upper cut it over short third man. But the extra bounce meant he played it straight to Chahal, who took the first of his three catches at the position effortlessly. And when Aiden Markram, returning to the XI, perished off the first ball, Hyderabad had lost three wickets in the powerplay.
Prior to this game, when they lost three or more wickets in the first six overs, Hyderabad had lost three of the four matches. The signs were ominous.
In such circumstances in the past, they have appeared a batting unit without a Plan B. Head and Heirich Klaasen picked 24 runs in quick time. But with Ashwin, Sandeep Singh and Chahal tightening the screws, Hyderabad would slowly shift gears down as they went 30 deliveries without a four or a six. In that phase, they would even lose Head, to a slow-bouncer.
But Hyderabad were not losing their heads on the night even as Rajasthan kept dishing out the slower ones. Klaasen would play an uncharacteristic but effective knock — 50 off 34 balls — with the intention of stemming a collapse. In many ways, he didn’t have a choice as Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abdul Samad departed in the 13th over, forcing Hyderabad to bring in the Impact Player Shahbaz Ahmed. Klaasen was 29 off 20 then. Their season, which promised much, depended on what they did with the bat in the next five overs. In the last five, they have been striking at 11 runs an over, and they needed a similar ending. Hyderabad, despite losing wickets, still managed 43 runs in this phase. With 175/9 on board the match was on and SRH’s bowlers delivered.
