Obliteration
We are breathless. We leave you with the top of the report. Thanks for joining us.
Sunrisers Hyderabad obliterated Lucknow Super Giants’ challenge by first stifling them with the new ball and then launching a sensational chase of 166 in just 9.4 overs, the highest 10-over score in any T20. The massive win lifted them to No. 3 in the points table with 14 points in 12 matches, but also gave them a much-needed net-run-rate boost. The chase was so brutal that LSG didn’t even bother with their Impact Substitute. A lot will rightly be spoken of the explosive batting of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who got to their fifties in 16 and 18 balls respectively, putting on a hu8ndred inside the powerplay for the second time this IPL, both the highest powerplay scores in all of T20 cricket. However, it was with the ball that SRH set up the win. Bhuvneshwar Kumar led the way with figures of 4-0-12-2, conceding only in denominations of one, completely shutting down the LSG top order, which scored just 66 in the first 11.2 overs. That they were not enterprising enough was underscored by the unbeaten 99-run stand between Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran, which eventually proved to hopelessly inadequate.
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Total knockout
It has taken just 9.4 overs. Fourteen sixes and 16 fours. Every second ball has reached the boundary. Travis Head 89 off 30, Abhishek Sharma 75 off 28. This is an obliteration. They have gone from -0.065 to 0.41 with this early finish. Finally a net-run-rate fillip for SRH
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Abhishek gets to fifty too
Well it seems slow by comparison, but Abhishek Sharma has got to fifty in 19 balls with a straight six off Ayush Badoni. That's 120 for 0 in 6.3 balls. It is a ridiculous mismatch.
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Now that's a powerplay
107 Number of runs scored in the powerplay. In all T20 cricket, only seven times have 100 or more been scored in the powerplay. SRH have the top two scores, both this year
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Fifty for Head
It has taken just the 16 balls for Travis Head to get to his fifty. It is some astonishing hitting from Head. He is just picking his spots and sending them there no matter where the ball is pitched, no matter the pace. One of the incredible ones is a back-foot off-drive off Ravi Bishnoi for a huge six over long-off. Then there is a swat down the wicket straight of mid-off off Naveen-ul-Haq. He is 58 off 18 now, has gone past 500 for the tournament, and has hit the most fours this IPL. SRH 87 for 0 in five overs. That's four times what LSG were at this point.
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SRH on a rampage
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That's the second and third overs. Abhishek took care of Thakur in the second, Head tore into Gowtham in the third. It's 47 for 0 in three overs.
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Bhuvi singles
0 Number of doubles, triples or boundaries Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded today. Only singles off him
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SRH up and running
LSG open with K Gowtham and Yash Thakur expectedly, but SRH have got off to a flier. Travis Head hits Gowtham for a four followed by Abhishek Sharma taking four fours off Thakur. Quickly they have reached 25 for 0 in two overs.
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LSG's second-best finish
53 Number of runs LSG scored at the death. Only once have they scored more this IPL: 56 against CSK
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Big finish for LSG
Add 19 off the last over, bowled by Pat Cummins, and LSG have had an uneaten fifth-wicket stand of 99 off 52. Badoni ends up with 55 off 30, and Pooran with 48 off 26, denied a fifty by a superb stop by Reddy off the last ball as he flicked the ball in for a four when it looked like a certain six.
This stand puts in perspective how ordinary they were before. They have got 66 in the remaining 68 balls. Two of the fastest bowlers, Natarajan and Cummins, have bowled eight overs between them for 97 runs.
SRH need 166 to win.
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Badoni gets to fifty
Off just 28 balls. Ayush Badoni has kept LSG alive in this contest. He has manipulated fields and the lines of the bowlers by moving around in the crease, and has also played some orthodox shots just hard enugh to clear the field.
Unfortunately, Natarajan has also got his fifty, conceding 15 in the 19th over. LSG 146 for 4 in 19 overs.
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Not Natarajan's day
T natarajan has gone for 35 runs in three overs as Ayush Badoni has moved around in the crease and managed to place him in the gaps. Badoni is not a power-hitter but a game where the seven an over might be the going rate, the pitch is right up his alley. He is 35 off 19, and the partnership is 59 off 33. LSG 126 for 4 in 17 overs.
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Some momentum for LSG
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Finally the run rate goes past six an over with Ayush Badoni manoeuvring T Natarajan for three boundaries in the 14th over. And we now have two batters going at better than a run a ball: Badoni and Pooran. LSG 90 for 4 in 14
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Krunal is run out
Two ways of looking at it. You are already losing wickets, do you really need a risky single? The squeeze is on, you have to take every single to keep the momentum. Krunal Pandya has hit to mid-off, who is not on the 30-yard circle, and takes him on. Cummins has hit down the middle stump, and got him out. It's 66 for 4 in 11.2.
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Cummins gets Rahul
This is not a slower ball. On pace, sliding onto the pads, Rahul feels he has to have a swing at it. He flicks it in the air, trying to go behind square on the leg side, but he gets little pace to work with because of nthe slowness of the pitch. Caught at deep square, gone for 29 off 33. LSG 57 for 3 in 10 overs.
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A four at last
55 Number of legal balls it has taken for LSG to hit a four. They have hit three sixes, though. And this four has come with Cummins bowling on-pace. Justin Langer says it looks like a "very very slow wicket". LSG 53 for 12 in 9.1 overs
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We have 1000 sixes this IPL
For a while it looked like we might have to wait for the second innings to get there, but Krunal Pandya has hit two successive incredible sixes. The first one is unbelievable. A slower bouncer from Jaydev Unadkat, almost head high, but he has flat-batted it for a six over, wait for it, long-on. It is just an incredible hit. The next one is more orthodox, a drive back over Unadkat's head as he pitches it up and goes on pace. LSG 45 for 2 in eight overs.
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Early impressions on Viyaskanth
It is a helpful pitch - in that it is a little slow and gripping - but the areas that Viyaskanth has hit in his first over have been perfect. First impressions of a leggie quick through the air. Hasn't turned any of the balls big, but has shown his variations: the wrong'un, the front-of-the-hand ball. Just three off his first over. It is 30 for 2 after seven.
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LSG's slowest powerplay this year
27 Number of runs scored in the powerplay. Their slowest before this was 45. Time now for Viyaskanth, the leggie
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Bhuvneshwar gets Stoinis
118 Number of powerplay wickets Bhuvneshwar Kumar has taken in all T20 cricket. Only David Willey has taken more. Add to it his economy of 6. Colossal bowler. And he can thank Sanvir Singh for a low catch diving forward at mid-on. Marcus Stoinis is gone. LSG 21 for 2 in 4.2. In comes Krunal Pandya
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Bhuvneshwar now gets de Kock out
Make it 70 balls for 67 runs for de Kock off Bhuvneshwar, but also make it two dismissals, caught superbly at deep square leg by Nitish Kumar Reddy, who makes the catch look ridiculously easy as he lobs the ball back in when stepping over and comes back in to claim it. LSG 13 for 1 in 2.1 overs. Marcus Stoinis is the new batter in.
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Cummins takes new ball
2 Number of times Pat Cummins has opened the attack this IPL. A good day to be doing it: his 31st birthday. KL Rahul hits him for a six but he concedes just nine. It's 13 for 0 after two.
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Bhuvneshwar continues to dominate de Kock
66 Number of runs de Kock has scored off Buvneshwar in all T20 cricket, including the first over today in which he nearly had de Kock lbw
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The latest Sri Lankan in the IPL
Here is some background on Vijayakanth Viyaskanth.
Viyaskanth is the first born-and-bred cricketer from his city to appear in an internationally televised game from Sri Lanka. Jaffna - which Stallions ostensibly represent - is the intellectual and commercial hub of the Tamil north, and has through the course of its history been home to some of the island's most erudite figures. More recently, the north and the east of the island have also produced a separatist ethnic struggle. From the 80s until 2009, Tamil separatists were locked in a brutal war against the mostly-Sinhalese Sri Lankan state. That the state did not adequately represent them was among the north's many grievances. As there has never been a born-and-bred northern national cricketer (at least since Sri Lanka achieved Test status), the cricket team has been seen by many as merely a microcosm of a deeply flawed nation.
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LSG bat; de Kock back but Mohsin misses out
KL Rahul has won the toss, and has decided to bat first. I suspect it has got a lot to do with denying SRH what they love to do. Quinton de Kock is back for them. The injured Mohsin Khan misses out. They have Amit Mishra in the substitutes today.
SRH have interesting changes. Snavir Singh and the Sri Lankan legspinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth makes his IPL debut.
Lucknow Super Giants Q de Kock, KL Rahul*†, MP Stoinis, N Pooran, A Badoni, DJ Hooda, KH Pandya, K Gowtham, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq
Impact subs Yudhvir, Turner, Siddharth, Mishra, Padikkal
Sunrisers Hyderabad TM Head, K Nitish Kumar Reddy, H Klaasen†, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sanvir Singh, PJ Cummins*, B Kumar, JD Unadkat, V Viyaskanth, T Natarajan
Impact subs Malik, Agarwal, Phillips, Washington, Abhishek
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High stakes in Hyderabad
It's match 57 already. Time flies, doesn't it? Already we have high stakes involved, and not just for the participants in this match.
SRH and LSG are tied at 12 points each from 11 matches, which has them at joint-third on the table along with two other teams. One of them, DC, has played an extra match.
You can read all the scenarios here.
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