SRH slump to their lowest total as Narine delivers yet another economical spell

The Sunrisers Hyderabad are out of the 2021 IPL play-offs, but they can be the party spoilers for few. However, that wasn’t the case against a strong Kolkata Knight Riders team. After electing to bat first, Hyderabad suffered a loss in the second ball of the innings when Wriddhiman Saha was adjudged LBW against Tim Southee for a golden duck. Jason Roy, who was their hero a couple of matches ago, departed within the powerplay overs. With the skipper Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg started to rebuild the innings. That as well came to an end after Williamson ran himself out in the seventh over. Limping their way through, which has been their story in IPL 2021, Sunrisers reached to a total of 115/8 in their full quota of 20 overs.

In reply, the swashbuckling opener of Kolkata, Venkatesh Iyer was dismissed early. With some swing on offer early on, Hyderabad bowlers contained the Kolkata batsmen to 36 in the powerplay. The runs were hard to come by after Rahul Tripathi’s departure in the seventh over. In fact, in the next five overs, they played 73.3 percent dot balls (22 dots off 30 balls). But, Shubman Gill who had set his eye in, took the attack to the pacers. In his first 30 balls, he scored at 83.3 and then went on to score at 152.4 in his last 21 balls. By virtue of a 51-ball 57-run knock, Kolkata achieved the target with two balls remaining. There were few notable stats from the match and here are a few of those:

Bhuvneshwar’s century of matches

Since he joined Hyderabad in the 2014 edition of the IPL, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been an integral part of the Orange Army. He was one of the reasons behind Hyderabad 2016 edition title lift. With 23 wickets in that season, Bhuvneshwar was the proud owner of the Purple Cap in 2016. In the following year as well, the pacer donned the Purple Cap with 26 wickets, making him the only bowler to own the Purple Cap in consecutive years. In match 49, Bhuvneshwar stepped out to play his 100th match for Hyderabad, which is the most for the franchise.

Saha bags a golden duck

Apart from Jonny Bairstow, none of the openers for Hyderabad have got going in IPL 2021 and Saha is one of them. Saha was chosen as one of their openers on back of his decent run in IPL 2020 at this position. In three innings he batted in the powerplay last season, Saha scored at a strike rate of 169.1 without being dismissed in the powerplay. However, this season, in seven innings he has got out five times at an average of 15.8. In his match against Kolkata, he bagged a golden duck and became only the second Hyderabad opener to suffer this fate.

Yet another low for Hyderabad

The 2021 edition of the IPL has been a forgettable one for Hyderabad. While the team has been eliminated from the play-offs for the first time in IPL since 2016, for the first time in their IPL career they are the table footers. Though it’s a hard truth to accept, their performances in this year have shown characteristics of a team that are in the bottom. Their match against Kolkata adds to that misery. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Hyderabad team tottered to a score of 115/8 after batting their full quota of 20 overs. This is their lowest total in the IPL after batting full 20 overs without being all-out.

The miser

In the world of technology, there are very few bowlers in this generation against whom batsmen still struggle. Narine is definitely one of them. As soon as he comes out to bowl, the mindset of almost every batsman will be to play him out and that is the reason why, Narine is one of the most economical bowlers. In his match against Hyderabad, he bowled a four over spell conceding only 12 runs, which is three runs over. In IPL, this was the 48th instance of him delivering a spell where he conceded less than six runs per over. Only Ravichandran Ashwin has achieved it more times (49) among bowlers who have finished their full four overs in an innings in IPL.

Gill’s slowpoke innings

Going ahead, this innings from Gill should give some confidence for Kolkata's think tank. Though it was slow and steady, it was an important one. After losing his opening partner Iyer in the powerplay and Tripathi at the start of middle overs, Gill’s scoring was dented. However, he picked up the pace at the right time to register a 44-ball fifty. This is his slowest half-century in IPL and the joint slowest for a Kolkata batsman in UAE. Nitish Rana against Chennai in 2020 also scored a 44-ball fifty at the same venue.