Ahmedabad: Veteran seamer Mohit Sharma straightjacketed the batters in death overs after Afghan spin twins Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad had tightened the noose in the middle overs as Gujarat Titans restricted the high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad to a modest 162 for 8 in their IPL match here Sunday.
Fresh from smashing a record 277 in their last game, SRH were going great guns with 56/1 inside the power-play but the young and experienced Afghan wrist spin duo of Noor (1/32) and Rashid (1/33) turned the match on its head.
The intermittent wickets meant that SRH could not hit the top speed.
Noor dismissed the in-form SRH opener Travis Head (19), while Rashid sent back explosive Heinrich Klaasen (24) against the run of play.
Rashid also took a brilliant diving catch at the deep to dismiss Aiden Markram as SRH faltered badly at the back end. They managed just 40 runs and lost five wickets in the last five overs.
Mohit then shone at the death, dismissing Shahbaz Ahmed (22) and Washington Sundar (0) off successive balls. He returned impressive figures of 4-0-25-3 as SRH managed just three runs in the last over.
After plundering runs at an astonishing pace in their last game, the Orange Army had little hesitation in opting to bat first and dictate the pace of the game with Travis Head up front.
The Aussie left-hander kept charging in, while Mayank Agarwal (16) once again looked out of sorts before being dismissed by Azmatullah Omarzai.
Last match hero Abhishek Sharma smashed Rashid for two sixes on both the sides and it revived memories of his last match partnership with Head.
But left-arm wrist spinner Noor bowled a superb first over to peg SRH back from being 56/1 after the power-play.
The in-form destrcutive SRH opener Head unleashed a slog sweep as the 19-year-old Afghan spinner tricked him with a wrong one. The ball pitched on his off-stump before sharply turning in to crash into the middle-stump.
Runs suddenly dried up with Rashid conceding just four runs from his second over as both the wrist spinners bowled superbly in tandem to squeeze SRH in.
A captaincy masterstroke by Shubman Gill to bowl Mohit the 10th over resulted in another wicket when the veteran seamer dismissed a well-set Abhishek (29).
The left-hander sliced it straight to Gill at extra-cover in what seemed a perfect set-up for the young Indian batter.
But Klaasen ensured that the lull does not stay longer as he charged the young Noor in his last over for two slog sweeps over midwicket boundary.
Rashid however had the last laugh as he cut short the innings of SRH six-hitting machine Klaasen in the 14th over.
The South African completely missed Rashid’s googly to be cleaned up against the run of play.
In the next over, Rashid made all the difference with his splendid diving catch at deep to dismiss Aiden Markram (17).
Markram took charge of a Yadav slower delivery as Rashid at long on ran forward, adjusted at the last moment to take a stunning diving catch tumbling forward.
PTI
