Titans suffer first loss of the season as Sunrisers win two in a row

The Gujarat Titans suffered their first defeat of the 2022 season after the Hardik Pandya-led side were comprehensively beaten by the Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets at the DY Patil Stadium on Monday. After the SRH bowlers restricted Gujarat to a below-par score of 162, Kane Williamson played a captain’s knock in the run-chase, guiding the team home with a well-timed 57 off 46 deliveries to give the Orange Army their second win on the bounce this season.

After winning the toss and choosing to bowl, SRH got off to a terrible start with the ball as Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded ten wides and 17 runs in the opening over. However, the veteran pacer immediately made amends in his second as he removed the in-form Shubman Gill thanks to an excellent one-handed catch from Rahul Tripathi in the ring. Coming in at number three, Sai Sudarshan found a couple of boundaries to get his innings going but was caught off a leading edge by Kane Williamson in the sixth over before Matthew Wade’s struggles continued as an opener, with the Australian pinned on his pads by the speed of Umran Malik.

From 64 for three, Hardik Pandya led the recovery for the Titans, but Gujarat were never able to find the big end-overs flourish they needed to put on a big score. Pandya started brightly as he launched Markram for a six and creamed Umran Malik for consecutive boundaries after being hit on the helmet. However, the Titans captain failed to make the most of his solid start while also receiving very little company at the other end. Miller was undone by his countryman Marco Jansen for 12 before Abhinav Manohar’s chancy innings ended on 35 after being dropped on three occasions. Pandya finished with his slowest half-century in the IPL, off 42 deliveries, and Gujarat managed just 7 runs off the final over as T Natarajan nailed his yorkers’ to perfection to limit the Titans to 162.

With Kane Williamson opening alongside Abhishek Sharma, SRH suffered a sedate start to their run-chase, managing just 11 runs off the first four overs. However, the pair did recover nicely in the final two overs of the powerplay bowled by Mohammad Shami and Lockie Ferguson, which were taken for 31 runs. Although Rashid Khan removed Sharma in the ninth over, Williamson kept SRH on course in the chase, taking two sixes off Hardik Pandya before reaching his fifty with a couple of boundaries against Lockie Ferguson.

Gujarat threatened to make a comeback when Rahul Tripathi was forced off the field with an injury before Williamson holed out to long-on, but Nicholas Pooran finished the game in style with an excellent cameo off 34 from 18 to seal Hyderabad’s second victory of the season.