IPL 2022, SRH vs GT, Top Performances: Williamson, Pooran help SRH chase 162; GT drop to 5th place

IPL 2022, SRH vs GT, Top Performances: Williamson, Sharma's 64-run stand, Abhinav Manohar, Pandya's 50-run partnership and Pooran's 34* are the top performances.

Williamson, Sharma added 64 runs for 1st wicket against Gujarat Titans (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Brief Scores: SRH 168-2 (Williamson 57, Pooran 34*, Rashid 1-28) beat GT 162-7 (Hardik 50*, Manohar 35, Natarajan 2-34) by 8 wickets

Player of the Match: Kane Williamson (57 runs off 46 balls)

The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) after earning their first victory of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 were up against the unbeaten Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Monday.

SRH captain, Kane Williamson on winning the toss, opted to bowl first on a surface that looked a bit patchy with both bounce and spin on offer. Both the teams were going in with an unchanged XI.

Sunrisers hand Gujarat Titans their maiden IPL defeat

Put in to bat first, even though GT batters were striking the ball at a decent rate, the wickets were falling at regular intervals. At one stage, they were pushed back to 104-4 in the 14th over when Hardik Pandya, who managed a fighting fifty, stitched an adequate 50-run stand with Abhinav Manohar to lead themselves to 162/7 in their 20 overs.

The SRH openers, after struggling in the opening overs, increased their pace to bring up a 64-run partnership in nine overs. Kane Williamson, after losing his opening partner, went on to score a steady fifty before Nicholas Pooran powered SRH to their second consecutive win in IPL 2022.

Let’s scan the top performances from SRH vs Gujarat Titans game, IPL 2022:

Nicholas Pooran's 34 off 18 balls helps SRH beat Gujarat Titans (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Nicholas Pooran storm blew away Titans late in the innings

SRH were going at a decent pace but they lost good-looking Rahul Tripathi due to an injury; the equation did look a bit scary then especially when they also lost captain Williamson few overs later.

The onus was on Caribbean star, Nicholas Pooran, who even after coming to the IPL with a huge price tag of INR 10.75 crores hadn’t really fired up the stage with a string of low scores. But on a new evening, he began his show by cracking a four and six off the pace of Lockie Ferguson before ending the game with a six off young Darshan Nalkande.

Most impressively, he took the singles and ran hard between the wickets to make the doubles count which put more pressure on the opponent side. Shouldering on that tiny but impactful 34-run knock in just 18 balls including two fours and as many as sixes, SRH tasted their second victory in consecutive games.

Read More: IPL 2022, SRH vs CSK, Top Performances: Sundar, Natarajan strangle CSK; Abhishek's 75 helps SRH win

Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma's 63-run opening stand

Chasing 162, the one thing SRH would have loved to have must be a decent opening stand to lay down the stage for the middle order batters to chase down the target.

But after the starting four overs, the Sunrisers had just 11 on the board and both of the batters were required to accelerate. Kane Williamson collected 14 runs from the fifth over bowled by Mohammed Shami before Abhishek Sharma, who was in great touch after his match-winning knock in the last game, grabbed 17 runs off Ferguson to take them to 42-0 in the powerplay. It was also the highest opening stand against Gujarat Titans who failed to pick a wicket in the powerplay for the very first time.

They stretched the opening stand up to 64 before Abhishek Sharma was dismissed by Rashid Khan. Nonetheless, the opening partnership was one of the main reasons why SRH successfully chased down the target to hand Titans their maiden defeat in IPL 2022.

Read More: IPL 2022, GT vs PBKS, Top Performances: Tewatia's double blows with Gill's 96 take GT to 2nd spot

Manohar, Pandya added 50 runs for 5th wicket against SRH (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya's 50-run Partnership

The Gujarat Titans, put in to bat first, after an expressive start, got off the track in the middle overs losing wickets regularly. GT captain Hardik Pandya, who became the third fastest to smash 100 sixes in the IPL, after a rapid start wasn’t timing the ball too well.

When David Miller was dismissed, Pandya was joined by Abhinav Manohar whom the Titans had bagged for INR 2.60 crores in the auction. The Karnataka boy straightaway started the business smacking boundaries to all sides of the park. The SRH fielders did help him by dropping him thrice.

He raced away to 32 off just 18 deliveries as the fifth wicket stand reached 50 in just 32 balls while Hardik Pandya, who had just 106 runs in 10 innings against SRH before the clash, cracked his slowest fifty in IPL in 42 balls.

The Gujarat Titans, shouldering on the stand, reached 162/7.

IPL 2022 Points Table

IPL 2022 Points Table after SRH vs Gujarat Titans game

What’s to come

The 22nd match of IPL 2022 will see the south Indian derby between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.

Here are some of the top twitter reactions from SRH vs Gujarat Titans game, IPL 2022:

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