Sunrisers Hyderabad’s spin duo of Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma helped the orange team pull off an unlikely win against Rajasthan Royals on Friday. After putting on 175 in their 20 overs, Sharma and Ahmed took 5 wickets between them at an economy rate of less than 6 an over to help restrict RR to 139.
Notably, while Sharma was part of the Sunrisers XI from the outset, Ahmed was brought in as an impact player after the wicket of Travis Head. The 29-year-old showed his mettle with both bat and ball, scoring 18 runs and taking 3 wickets at an economy rate of 5.75.
Also Read | ‘Abhishek Sharma is ready’: Former greats back SRH batter for India berth after all-round show against RR
After the match, SRH skipper Pat Cummins was asked who made the call to bring in Shahbaz Ahmed as the impact player. To which, Cummins replied, “That was (Daniel) Vettori’s choice, he likes his left-arm orthodox and wanted as many left-arm orthodox as possible,”
“That was a surprise, tried to stick one out of him (Abhishek) with a couple of right-handers and he bowled beautifully and those two won it with their bowling in the middle overs. We knew our strength was our batting and we wouldn’t underestimate the experience we have in this squad, it’s a dream having Bhuvi, Nattu and Unadkat, makes my job easy,” the SRH skipper added.
SRH to face KKR in IPL 2024 Final:
Notably, Sunrisers Hyderabad have reached the IPL final for the first time after winning the prestigious trophy in 2016 under the leadership of David Warner. This year, they will take on two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 26.
SRH suffered a crushing 8-wicket defeat to KKR in their last encounter in Qualifier 1, but the Pat Cummins-led franchise will be looking for some retribution this time around.
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Published: 25 May 2024, 11:34 AM IST