Sunrises Hyderabad’s Amazing Defence Game, 23rd and 25th Match

The trend of this IPL early on was simple. Win the toss and filed first. Chasing a total was a cakewalk. In fact, Sunrisers Hyderabad won their first three matches batting first. They faced a couple of losses after that. But in a stunning reversal, they have now managed to win their last two matches batting first and they have defended two very low totals.

The first instant was against Mumbai Indians at their own den, the Wankhede Stadium. SRH batting first had scored only 118 runs and the match was all set for MI to just stroll through and increase their net run-rate. Instead, the powerful bowling line-up of Hyderabad crashed Mumbai down to only 87 runs and registered a phenomenal victory.

Yesterday, against Kings XI Punjab, SRH against struggled at home and somehow reached 132 runs batting first. The total did not look defendable at all against KL Rahul and Gayle. Once again, SRH bowling attack came to the fore and in a spectacular collapse caught Punjab well short of the target.

The line-up that consists Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shakib Al Hasan is proving itself capable of defending any total.