"I’m enjoying my bowling": Mohammed Siraj after four-wicket haul vs SRH

Hyderabad boy Mohammed Siraj proved to be the nemesis of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Thanks to his career-best IPL spell of 4-0-17-4, a dominant Gujarat Titans side destroyed SRH by seven wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Sunday. A demoralised SRH succumbed to their fourth successive defeat, while GT notched up their third win in four matches to climb to the second spot.

Chasing 153, GT lost two wickets by the fourth over with Mohammed Shami and skipper Pat Cummins dismissing left-hander Sai Sudharsan (5) and Jos Buttler (0) in quick succession. But skipper Shubman Gill (61 not out off 43 balls) and Washington Sundar (49) weathered the early storm with a 90-run stand off 56 balls to put GT on the road to victory. Getting his Titans cap at the start of the match, the Tamil Nadu left-hander slid in gracefully as a top-order batsman, while Gill was at his flamboyant best, leaving SRH high and dry. Impact batter Sherfane Rutherford hastened the end with a quick-fire 35 off 16 balls. Earlier, enjoying his bowling with his new team GT under Ashish Nehra, Siraj decimated SRH batters.

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Shubman Gill during his 61 not out yesterday

‘Enjoying my bowling’

Ever since he was overlooked for the Champions Trophy, the Indian pacer said he was working on his bowling. “I’m enjoying my bowling,’’ said Siraj, who was playing in front of his home crowd. Even though the wicket was on the slower side, Siraj attacked the stumps to demolish SRH at the start and at the end of the innings.

Put in to bat, SRH batters, who instilled fears in the opponents’ mind last year, yet again fumbled at the start. A fired-up Siraj hustled the top-order with good pace and seam movement. Continuing his fine form with the ball, he scalped two in his first three overs to jolt SRH. The 31-year-old Hyderabadi was exceptional. He removed danger man Travis Head with his sixth delivery. Abhishek Sharma followed his partner in the fifth over. The left-hander was out to a soft dismissal and was pouched at mid-on to give Siraj his 100th IPL wicket. His first spell read 3-0-14-2. Then, coming back in the 19th over, he trapped Aniket Verma in front and finished his spell by disturbing Simarjeet Singh’s stumps.

“We want to be aggressive,’’ said skipper Cummins after losing the toss, but the GT bowlers called the shots by slicing through the top-order in eight overs. Left-hander Ishan Kishan, who scored a century in his first match for SRH, disappointed for the fourth time, holing out to fine leg off Prasidh Krishna. SRH choked as they meandered to 64-3 in 10 overs. Heinrich Klaasen compounded SRH’s woes by scoring only 27 before being castled by the crafty Sai Kishore, who is growing in stature. The Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner also had Nitish Reddy gobbled up at deep midwicket in his next over.

Cummins takes SRH past 150

On Saturday, GT Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki spoke of coach Ashish Nehra’s role with their bowlers. The tall Prasidh Krishna too has benefited as he showed in his two spells. The Karnataka pacer captured his second wicket by dismissing Kamindu Mendis. Bowling hard lengths and with subtle variations, the GT bowlers also did not allow the aggressive Aniket Verma to free his arms. The SRH batter fell to Siraj. With a few lusty shots, Cummins took the home team past the 150-mark. There were only two sixes in SRH’s innings. This is a marked contrast to last year when the batters thrived on sixes.

Brief scores
SRH 152-8 in 20 overs (N Reddy 31, H Klaasen 27; M Siraj 4-17, S Kishore 2-24, P Krishna 2-25) lost to GT 153-3 in 16.4 overs (S Gill 61*, W Sundar 49, S Rutherford 35*; M Shami 2-28) by 7 wkts