Branded as one of the weakest attacks in the Indian Premier League this season, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowlers pulled together and worked hard to seal a resounding win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday, April 18.

Under the leadership of Nitish Reddy, SRH mounted a strong counterattack against the Chennai Super Kings batting unit, restricting the visitors to 184/8 while defending 195 runs at home, in a game where almost 80 per cent of the crowd supported the away team. CSK supporters turned Uppal yellow and made the atmosphere hostile for the home team, keeping the pressure on with chants of ‘CSK, CSK’ throughout the game.

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Chasing 195, CSK got off to a great start and scored 76 runs in the first six overs, threatening to snatch the game early. However, the visitors lost momentum after the powerplay as SRH’s bowlers produced a brilliant collective effort, executing their plans to perfection against the likes of Matt Short, Dewald Brewis and Shivam Dubey and pulling the game deep into the chase consistently.

Defending 18 runs off the last six balls, uncapped paceman Prafulla Hinge, who had already given away 54 runs in his first three overs, almost lost his cool after bowling a waist-high no-ball on the third ball of the over. With the pressure mounting and the crowd rallying behind CSK, Hinz maintained his composure and bowled three excellent balls to restrict the opposition to 184/8 at the end of the 20th over.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that CSK were running away from the game in the beginning itself. Young Ayush Mhatre gave them a brilliant start, scoring 30 runs in just 13 balls and immediately put SRH on the backfoot. However, his momentum was halted due to a hamstring injury in the fifth over and Mhatre was out on the very next ball.

Mhatre’s wicket in the fifth over, followed by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s dismissal in the sixth over, gave SRH the perfect opening to counter-attack and they counter-attacked, draining the life out of CSK’s innings.

A lot of credit should be given to Nitish Reddy for bowling brilliantly against CSK. He bowled full and fast, while also mixing in the occasional sharp bouncer to keep the batsmen uncomfortable. Nitish’s intensity took CSK by surprise and the team handed him the important wickets of Sanju Samson and Ayush Mhatre.

Once the floodgates opened, SRH brought in pace bowlers Saqib Hussain and Ehsan Malinga to tighten the grip in the middle overs. Both of them bowled full and fast, constantly affecting the batting of CSK batsmen and making life difficult for the opposition team. Once the ball started to reverse after the 15th over, it became almost impossible for the CSK batsmen to score runs as they were not able to deal with the sideways movement of the ball. What’s worse is that he didn’t really pick up the slower balls that were bowled on the pitch, which left the batsmen unable to find any pace in the death overs.

Along with the fast bowlers came Madhya Pradesh’s left-arm wrist spinner Shivang Kumar, also known as the Noor Ahmed of India. Shivang’s consistent googlies were flying away from the right-handed batsman’s bat, putting a real brake on CSK’s scoring rate and forcing them to make mistakes.

Malinga finished with figures of 4-0-19-3, Shakib returned with figures of 4-0-32-1, while Shivang recorded figures of 3-0-18-1, which also included the crucial wicket of Dewald Brevis, who was out for 0 off 4 balls.

CSK never really recovered from that collapse and eventually collapsed to 184/8 in their 20 overs.

At this point, perhaps it needs to be highlighted again that SRH were said to have one of the thinnest bowling attacks at the start of the season. And they probably are. Just proved once again that even on non-competitive decks, Indian uncapped bowlers are good enough to trouble world-class hitters if given a solid plan.

On Saturday, the plan was simple. Bowled with good zip and tried to hit it over the off stump. Show good intentions. And when the time comes, hit your yorkers. And that was all it took to defeat CSK today. Credit must be given to the SRH management – especially Varun Aaron who was constantly in the ears of the bowlers, giving them guidance from the sideline.

CSK lost, but getting better day by day

Chennai Super Kings had gained momentum by winning two consecutive matches at home, but their momentum once again came to a halt after they failed to show bravery with the bat at the Rajiv Gandhi Uppal Stadium on Saturday.

The batting effort failed to support the bowling unit, which has been on the money for three consecutive matches this season. On the day, CSK started well against Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head with a familiar off-spin plan that we have seen throughout the T20 World Cup.

‘Travishack’ struggled to get the first two overs of spin, leaving Ruturaj Gaikwad a little greedy. The CSK skipper made the mistake of bowling his third over to Matt Short inside the powerplay, a move that produced results none of the team in yellow would have liked.

Abhishek cut loose and got SRH’s batting back on track by scoring 25 runs.

CSK felt the full wrath of Abhishek, who completed his half-century in just 15 balls. When it looked like SRH would reach 230-250, CSK hit back with quick wickets, dismissing Travis Head and Ishan Kishan in the final over of the powerplay.

Head hit a rank full toss straight to mid-off, while Kishan was tempted by a slot ball but lost his shape and headed straight to Ruturaj Gaikwad.

However, the mood of the game changed on the last ball of the eighth over, when Jamie Overton bowled Abhishek. On the last ball of the over, Overton edged Abhishek and the ball went into the hands of Sanju Samson behind the stumps. Samson appealed, but there was no interest from the bowler or the umpire. As both looked to accelerate, Samson forced the captain to take a DRS review, with Abhishek taking a feather on the outside edge.

SRH, from 75/0, suddenly became 93/3 in the space of 12 balls.

Heinrich Klaasen took over the innings after the top-order was dismissed, but could not do much damage due to the disciplined bowling of the CSK unit. Jamie Overton was the real hero here, rocketing at 150 kmph and hitting the batsmen hard at good lengths.

CSK’s bowlers really shone in the death overs, where they executed the round-the-wicket yorker plan against the SRH batsmen, conceding less than 20 runs in the last three overs.

Liam Livingstone, brought in as an impact sub, played a horror innings and was out on the last ball after scoring just 1 run off 5 balls.

However, CSK’s middle-order could not live up to the bowling standards and failed to chase the target of 195 runs.

After the game, CSK remained seventh in the IPL table, while SRH moved up to fourth with three wins from six matches.

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