Absolute thriller of a match it was at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Hyderabad between SRH and KXIP. KXIP won the toss and elected to field first, they started out well with Ankit Rajpoot getting Williamson in the first over, Rajpoot was lethal sending the top order batsmen home with some incredible bowling. Manish Pandey survived twice and went to score 54 runs off 51 balls, Shakib Al Hasan and YK Pathan contributed as well to get a total of 132 which was a low target. KXIP fielding poorly dropping crucial catches which could have saved 25-30 runs.
It was a difficult surface to bat but opening pair KL Rahul and Chris Gayle were looking really confident, they were hitting the ball cleanly and scoring rapidly. At the end of powerplay, KXIP were cruising to victory with 44 for no loss but a peach of a delivery from Rashid Khan broke the opening partnership in the 8th over, with Rahul gone to the pavillion, Chris Gayle was raring to go but SRH had other plans, Basil Thampi in the next over (9th over) bowled a short and fast ball at Gayle, Gayle trying to clear the boundary miscued the pull shot with the ball going high up in the air to take a caught and bowled wicket. Now the collapse started with SRH right back in the game. captain Williamson brought in Shakib Al Hasan who did not disappoint the captain by sending Agrawal and Finch home, but world’s best bowler Rashid Khan was the architect of this win by getting crucial wickets of KK Nair and captain R Ashwin. SRH fast bowlers also did their part with Sandeep Sharma taking 2 wickets but wicketless SS Kaul bowled well as well.
What a match it was, look at the wickets falling intervals of KXIP 55,57,77,82,88,92,99,101,119, wonderful cricket with 5 wickets falling for 47 runs between 7th-15th over.
Incredible Rashid, how would you play him, most dangerous bowlers, write your thoughts and comment.
