IPL 2022: Kane Williamson’s fifty helps Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans by 8 wickets

Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on an excellent all-round performance to thrash Gujarat Titans by 8 wickets in IPL 2022 clash on Monday (April 11) at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai.

SRH were chasing a challenging target of 163 and captain Kane Williamson played a massive part in the run-chase with Abhishek Sharma playing a quick knock of 42.

Notably, after winning their first three matches of the IPL 2022, Gujarat lost their first match in the tournament.

Chasing 163, Sunrisers enjoyed a steady start as their openers Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson gathered 42 runs without loss of any wickets inside the first six overs. The final over of the powerplay yielded great dividends for the men in orange as Abhishek smashed 17 runs off Lockie Ferguson, who was playing his 100th T20 match.

With runs coming at a stable pace, former SRH bowler Rashid Khan gave Gujarat their first breakthrough as he removed dangerous-looking opener, Abhishek Sharma, for 42. Rashid Khan bowled a good length ball on which Abhishek played the mistimed pull as Sai Sudharsan caught him at deep mid-wicket.

With run-rate piling, Kane Williamson took matters into his own hands as he smashed back-to-back sixes off Hardik Pandya in the 13th over. In the next over, Rahul Tripathi got retired hurt after he smashed Rahul Tewatia off a six on the very first ball.

Nicholas Pooran then joined his skipper on the crease and the duo started to clock runs on board. In the 16th over, Williamson brought up his composed fifty before getting out on the first delivery of the next over.

At the time of Williamson’s departure, SRH needed 34 runs off 24 balls. Aiden Markram and Pooran then made sure that SRH face no further hiccups in their march as they chased the target comfortably.

Earlier put into bat first, top knocks by Hardik Pandya (50*) and Abhinav Manohar (35) helped Gujarat Titans to post 162/7 in 20 overs against SunRisers Hyderabad.

Brief scores: Gujarat Titans 162/7 (Hardik Pandya 50*, Abhinav Manohar 35; T Natarajan 2-32) vs SunRises Hyderabad (Kane Williamson 57, Abhishek Sharma 42; Hardik Pandya 1-27).