Sunrisers tame Lions

On the back of brilliant bowling performances from Mustafizur Rahman and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, the Sunrisers Hyderabad romped to a five-wicket win over the Gujarat Lions at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday.

Although the game was much closer than it perhaps should have been, the result means that Hyderabad are now fourth with 10 points, two behind leaders Kolkata Knight Riders. Hyderabad however have a match in hand.

Gujarat Lions stayed second in the table with 10 points, but they have played ten games, two more than Hyderabad.

Hyderabad captain David Warner decided to put his bowling arsenal to work, opting to bowl after winning the toss.

His plan worked brilliantly as the bowlers took wickets at regular intervals to reduce Gujarat to 4-34 within the first eight overs.

Kumar struck in his second over picking up the wicket of Dwayne Smith with an outswinger which was caught safely by Mustafizur at short third man. He then returned in his third to dismiss Suresh Raina, taking a simple catch as the ball was lobbed back to him.

Then it was time for the Mustafizur show.

He came on with Brendon McCullum at the crease and bowled his now-famous cutter. Baz took the bait and swung wildly at the delivery, which looped high into the air with Shikhar Dhawan settling underneath. Astonishingly, he missed the catch, somehow trapping the ball between his hand and chest, but the ball bounced out as he fell.

However, it took Fizz just three balls to claim a deserved scalp. Dinesh Karthik played two dot balls before flashing at a delivery outside off. The ball went hard, but Kane Williamson took a stunning catch to give Fizz his first wicket.

He returned to pick up Jadeja's wicket and gave away just 17 runs in his four overs.

After the exchange, a dynamic start from Warner and a composed 40-ball 47 took Hyderabad home.

SCORES IN BRIEF
GUJARAT: 126 for 6 in 20 overs (Finch 51 not out, Raina 20; Mustafizur 2-17, Kumar 2-28)    
HYDERABAD: 129 for 5 in 19 overs (Dhawan 47 not out, Warner 24; Kulkarni 2-17, Bravo 2-14)
Result: Hyderabad won by 5 wickets.
Player-of-the-match: B Kumar.